LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I acknowledge that the land on which I live and work was stolen from the Native people who have lived here for time immemorial, including the Clackamas, Chinook Bands, Kalapuya, Kathlamet, Molalla, Multnomah, Tualatin, Tumwater, Wasco and many other tribes of the Willamette Valley and Western Oregon.

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I acknowledge that in addition to having their lands stolen, the Native people have been harmed, and continue to be harmed, by many policies and broken treaty trust obligations made by those who stole and currently occupy their lands. Their water and lands have been contaminated and damaged. Their rights to access their water and lands have been restricted, including their right to fish and hunt to sustain their families and their community. They have endured multiple, heinous attempts at cultural genocide, including attempts to erase their traditions, their religion, their art, their history, their stories, their language, and their connection to the land.

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I acknowledge that I have personally benefited from these stolen lands, not only by occupying stolen land, but also as both of my college degrees came from schools that were founded on lands, and funded by the sale of lands, stolen from Native people. Both Texas A&M University and Colorado State University were funded by what I had heard called “land grants” from the United States government. I recently learned that these “land grants” were really “land grabs” from Native people from across the country. (Read more from this High Country News article by Robert Lee and Tristan Ahtone.)

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I acknowledge that I have benefited throughout my career by working in the energy industry, an industry which has done irreparable damage to Native people and their lands. This damage includes national issues such as oil pipelines being built through Tribal lands, mining facilities polluting the Tribal lands and waters and thereby compromising the health of Native people, and an increase in crime, sexual assault and human trafficking on Native lands as a byproduct of the “man camps” set up for the purpose of gas and oil development on or near their lands. One major local issue is the crisis threatening the Pacific Northwest fish, including salmon, due to the dams built throughout the area and the effects of climate change. (Read more about this here: Save the Lower Snake River (salmonorcaproject.com).)

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I pledge to make reparations for how I have benefited from the harm done to Native people.  In 2023, this looks like:

• Dragonfly Consulting is sponsoring a Student Travel Scholarship to the 2023 American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) National Conference. This scholarship will cover the travel, lodging and registration fees for one student.

• Dragonfly Consulting is sponsoring five Tribal participants to the 2023 NW Tribal Clean Energy Summit. Shelley will also be attending this summit to listen and learn about Tribal clean energy initiatives in the Pacific Northwest.

• Dragonfly Consulting made an annual donation to the Native American Youth and Family Center and the Siletz Tribal Arts and Heritage Society.

• I continue to read newsletters and social media posts from local Tribes to learn about current events impacting Tribes, write letters to my representatives supporting Tribal issues and continue to learn more about the history and present lives of Native people.

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In 2022, this looked like:

• Dragonfly Consulting sponsored a Student Travel Scholarship to the 2022 American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) National Conference. This scholarship covered the travel, lodging and registration fees for one student.

• Dragonfly Consulting sponsored the 2022 National Tribal and Indigenous Climate Conference.

• Dragonfly Consulting made an annual donation to the Native American Youth and Family Center.

• Reading newsletters and social media posts from local Tribes to learn about current events impacting Tribes, writing letters to my representatives supporting Tribal issues and continuing to learn more about the history and present lives of Native people.

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I encourage everyone reading this to learn about the Tribes near you from the Tribes themselves, assess how you have, and continue to, benefit from the harm done to Native people, and make your own plan of action on how you intend to make amends for this harm done.

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Lastly, I want to acknowledge and thank my Indigenous colleagues, Ellsworth Lang and Donald Williams, in guiding me along this journey.