It is important to acknowledge the original Indigenous people of the land within our service area. We honor the original Indigenous people by committing to work with their descendants and learn from their traditional ecological knowledge and relational world view of the land and all things living upon it.
The West Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District acknowledges the original people whose land we are utilizing today: the Clackamas Chinook, the Willamette Tumwater, the Wasco-Wishram, the Watlata, the Multnomah, and other Chinookan peoples, as well as the Tualatin Kalapuya, the Cayuse, the Molalla, the Yakama, and other tribes and bands of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. We recognize that we are here because of the land displacement, cultural erasure, and other sacrifices that were forced upon them. We remind ourselves that we are guests of the land that falls within our geographic service area, now known as the City of Portland, Sauvie Island, and the Tualatin Mountains. We must do our best to honor the original peoples and build a better future together. We do this by learning from Indigenous peoples and stories, valuing Indigenous voices and priorities, and continued caring of, and giving to, the air, water, plants, animals, and the ecosystems that make up this land community. To follow this acknowledgment with action, we pursue impactful partnerships with Indigenous people, tribes and their sovereign governments, and inter-tribal organizations.
Some actions we have taken following the land acknowledgement are ongoing. These are examples from Year 3:
- Provided funding and participated in a storytelling event at Tyron Creek State Park in March 2024. At this event, we heard from Indigenous community members about how to more respectfully engage in discussion around land stewardship work with what we call “invasive plants.”
- Continued work with Wisdom of the Elders Workforce Development Internship program, which provides environmental education, conservation and restoration training and career pathways for Portland’s Native American adults. We worked with them to install plants from a Native-owned nursery at WMSWCD’s Jackson Middle School site.
- Shifted Partner Funding Grant application form and process to give priority to applicants that have increased access to land and/or increased culturally specific land-based education among Black, Indigenous, and other people of color.