Lummi Nation

Lummi Tribe
Lummi Tribal Health Center
2616 Kwina Rd,
Bellingham, WA 98226
Phone: 360-384-0464
Fax: 360-380-1328
Website: www.lummi-nsn.org

About the Clinic

Location
The Lummi Nation operates an ambulatory direct care facility under a P.L. 93-638, Title III Self-Governance Compact with the IHS. The center offers general comprehensive medical and dental, mental health and substance abuse counseling, WIC, family planning, community health outreach (CHR) and health education. The health program employs three doctors, two dentists, three public health nurses, 1.3 pharmacist, two pharmacy techs, two licensed practical nurses, three certified mental health counselors, six chemical dependency counselors, three registered nurses, a dental hygienist, a nutritionist, and an environmental health specialist. Two psychiatrists and a pediatric dentist are on contract as consultants. Primary care is provided to all direct care eligible Indians. The Lummi Tribal Health Center is AAAHC accredited and bills Medicaid and other third-party payers. A 4900 square foot clinic expansion was completed in 2002. The Clinic had over 35,000 ambulatory visits in FY 2002.

The Lummi Nation is part of the Northwest Washington Service Unit Health Board (NWSUHB) that also includes Upper Skagit, Nooksack and Swinomish. The NWSUHB is a non-profit organization, established in the early 1980's. The Health Board contracts for sanitation services and diabetic education and outreach under a P.L. 93-638, Title I consortium agreement. Three full-time positions; Sanitiarian, Dietetic Dietitian, Diabetic Educator are funded. All three positions provides services two days a week at Lummi. The Sanitarian services include supervision of contaminated waste handling, food handling permits, health inspections of tribal facilities, water quality and sewage management, vector control and solid waste disposal, and other duties as assigned by the tribal health department.

The Tribe's Contract Health Service Delivery Area (CHSDA) is Whatcom County. The enrolled tribal population is 3,519 and the Indian population living on or near the reservation is 4,800. The active health clinic user population is 4144. The leading causes of death are heart disease, malignant neoplasm, cerebrovascular disease, motor vehicle accidents and digestive diseases.

Services/Programs/Hospitals
In addition to clinic services, the Health Department operates a Wellness and Fitness Center and a Home Care Agency for the Elders. Both operate seven days per week.

The tribe also operates a Safe Home for youth that includes mental health and chemical dependency counseling services.

About the Tribe

History
The Lummi people traditionally lived near the sea and in mountain areas and returned seasonally to their longhouses located at a number of sites on the present reservation and on the San Juan Islands.  Smoke-dried seafood, camas bulbs, sun-dried berries and all species of shellfish, crab, salmon, trout, elk, deer, and other land and sea mammals made up the traditional Lummi diet. The Lummi people continue to speak the traditional Salishan language.  They expressed their language and religious traditions through elaborate carvings on totems and ceremonies.

The Lummi Reservation is seven miles northwest of Bellingham, Washington, in the western portion of Whatcom County 95 miles north of Seattle.  The reservation is a five mile long peninsula which forms Lummi Bay on the west, Bellingham Bay on the east, with a smaller peninsula of Sandy Point, Portage Island and the associated tidelands.  The Lummi Nation signed the treaty of Point Elliot in 1855 ceding much of their aboriginal lands in western Washington.  In return they received a reservation that originally covered 15,000 acres.  Today, approximately 12,000 acres remain in Indian control.  In 1948 the Lummi Nation adopted a Tribal Constitution, amended and ratified in 1970, which created the present government structure.  The Lummi Reservation is governed by an 11 member tribal council.  All tribal members are members of the General Council which meets at least once a year at which time one-third of the Tribal Council is elected.  The council appoints tribal members to serve on committees that oversee tribal enterprises on behalf of the Council.

Members
3,670 as of June 1997.

About the Area

Geography
The reservation occupies a small peninsula between Bellingham Bay and Georgia Strait. City: Bellingham, population 46,360. Elevation 50. Rainfall 35 inches. Average Temperatures 42-58. Whatcom Museum of History, Western Washington University, Whatcom Community College. Reservation is northwest of city. County: Whatcom, population 117,200. Native American 4,034, 50% of non-white and 3% of total population, 2,126 square miles along Canadian border between Cascade Mountains and Georgia Strait. County's assessed value averages $3,132 an acre. Principal industries: Food processing, wood products, petroleum refining, manufacturing, and agriculture.

Other Offices and Programs
Main Administration office, OEDP Office, Fisherman’s Cove Complex (Grocery Store and Marina), Texaco and AW Drive-In, a tribally owned and operated business, Seafood Processing Plant, a tribally owned facility, NW Indian College (a 2 year junior college), Fish Point Seafoods, a privately owned seafood processing plant (owned by a Lummi member), and Smoked Fish Processing (owned by a Lummi member). The tribe has an economic development plan that is updated annually.

Total Tribal Employees
Normally 250, but higher in seasonal periods.

Housing
Tribal housing is available .

The Lummi Indian Tribe and Life with the Salmon

Puget Sound, Washington

Contact: Kurt Russo
Lummi Treaty Protection Task Force
Tel: (360) 384-2358
Fax: (360) 384-4737
Puget Sound, WA


Scope: Rural

Project type: Salmon conservation and restoration

" Fish is culture, and culture, fish."

The Lummi Tribe of Native Americans has resided in northwest Washington State at the northern end of Puget Sound for 12,000 years. Throughout their existence, the Lummi people have relied on fishing as the mainstay of their culture and their survival. They designed the commonly used fishing methods of the reef net, the weir, and the purse seine, and lived in villages along the mainland and throughout the San Juan islands. Ceremonies and legends related to salmon and salmon fishing, with names such as The First Salmon Ceremony and The Tale of the Salmon Woman have been passed down through generations and provide evidence of the sacred relationship between the Lummi history and culture and the salmon.

Today, the Lummi people consist of over 3,500 enrolled tribal members and primarily live on or around a 20,000 acre reservation. Fishing and gathering of shellfish is the primary means of subsistence for most of the Lummi. Their livelihood and culture is based on fishing, and has been so since their existence as a tribe for the past 12,000 years.

This critical economic and cultural resource, however, is presently severely threatened with extinction. During the past ten years the salmon stocks have drastically declined. Once so thick that you could "walk on their backs" as legends say, two of the four species of salmon are now being considered for the national Endangered Species list.

This decline is attributed to accelerated logging in the headwater areas of the Nooksack Basin, the erection of small hydroelectric dams on salmon streams, ground and water pollution from industry and agriculture, the decline of wetland areas, and the rapid and irresponsible development of the lowland areas. As a result of such actions, the North Fork of the Nooksack River has dropped over eight feet in the past ten years, over 60% of the salmon streams have been destroyed due to logging practices, and the critical portions of the South Fork of the Nooksack River average over 70 degrees F. which is a lethal temperature for salmon. A more recent threat to the species is the growing "private property rights" movement that decries the regulations on private lands that were passed to protect the salmon streams.

The Lummi people have been dramatically confronted by this salmon decline, and have formed a united front that plays an extremely important role in maintaining the fish stocks in the region and responsibly managing and using the threatened salmon resource. The Lummi carry this out by maintaining the largest Native American fishing fleet in the Pacific Northwest, which boasts of the most extensive fisheries protection program in the region. This program enlists the services of over 150 highly qualified tribal fisheries technicians and specialists, many of whom were trained at the Lummi School of Aquaculture or, more recently, the Lummi Community College. The Lummi Tribe's Fisheries Department has an annual budget of over $3,000,000 and operates one of the most successful and productive salmon hatcheries in the United States, releasing over 17,000,000 salmon fingerlings each year.

The overall goal of the fisheries program is to provide for the sustainable management of the fisheries stocks, including the protection of salmon spawning habitat in locations forty to sixty miles from the Lummi reservation. Fisheries staff take careful action to fulfill their mission by monitoring of the health of these streams, conducting salmon counts in many of the small river tributaries near the Nooksack Basin, and monitoring the return and harvest of the salmon.

As the salmon population continues to be threatened, the Lummi are currently working by increasing the productivity of their hatchery operation, actively pursuing the establishment of new and stricter laws to protect salmon habitat, and engaging in an aggressive public education campaign to better inform the public of the importance of the salmon in creating sustainable livelihoods for many of the Washington state citizens. The Lummi are also represented on the International Salmon Commission that seeks to restrain the activities of the off-shore drift net fishery.

The actions of the Lummi tribe provide a model for the involvement of indigenous peoples in the planning and management of our existing natural resources. By actively taking part in both local and international efforts, the Lummi are forcing the current industrialized society to listen to and account for traditional values and management methods with regards to natural resources. Sound policy changes are needed that discount present actions according to their impact on future generations, and often indigenous peoples are the true experts on such policy due to their understanding of generational time. To the Lummi, overfishing is not an option because it won't last into the future and if fishing is gone, their identity and culture will disappear.

According to the Lummi, the Great Salmon Woman has taught them that if they take only the amount of salmon needed and protect the birthing areas of the salmon (who are hatched, go to sea for four years, and then return to their birth spot to spawn and die), the salmon will continue to exist and thrive. With this understanding, the Lummi people continue to work toward sustainable management of our current resources, and to educate the people of today in the management methods they have been using for thousands of years.

Special thanks to Kurt Russo and the information gathered from his paper "Swimming Upstream: A Way of Life on the River."
Case Study Source: Sustainability in Action: Profiles of Community Initiatives Across the United States-- American Forum for Global Education. 1995

LUMMI HEALING POLE

   In early July of 2002, Lummi tribal member Jewell Praying Wolf James (Indian Name: tse-Sealth, a lineal descendent of Chief Seattle) began carving an old growth cedar log donated by Crown Pacific Limited Partnership of Portland, Oregon. Mr. James, a Northwest Coast Spirit Dancer, master carver and President of the House of Tears Carvers, volunteered to carve a traditional Healing Pole to be placed on September 7 in Arrow Park, in the Sterling Forest, on an 80-acre site dedicated to the memory of those who were killed at the World Trade Center. The 20,000-acre Sterling Forest, one hour north of Manhattan, is the sister forest of the Arlecho Creek forest, located one hour north of Seattle in Washington State.

The Lummi Tribe, working alongside the Sterling Forest Partnership, Crown Pacific Limited Partnership, The Nature Conservancy of Washington, and the Native American Land Conservancy of California, has raised $5.5 million of the $7.1 million needed to acquire and preserve the Arlecho Creek forest. The acquisition of this old-growth forest by the Lummi Tribe, which must be completed this year, will benefit not only four species of salmon and other endangered wildlife, but will also bring healing to the Lummi community that uses the Arlecho forest as a spiritual sanctuary for traditional cultural practices. Once acquired, the forest will be used for healing and learning landscape programs jointly administered by Northwest Indian College, the Sterling Center of New York, and the Native American Land Conservancy, that connect people to the land and, through the land, to each other.

The heart of the story, however, is not endangered species or imperiled cultures. Rather, the heart of the story is the spirit vested in the pole and represented in the partnerships that have made this coming together possible. The destiny and destination of the Healing Pole also communicates an important message to the world community that is experiencing conflict between diverse cultural groups. Significantly, the Healing Pole carries a message of hope for harmony and healing in all our relations that comes from America's First Peoples.  Mr. James has spent four weeks carving the 13 foot totem which is being transported across the United States. The Healing Pole's journey includes stops in a number of reservations where it is being blessed by the Native American community. It will then be placed in the Sterling Forest by Lummi tribal members in a ceremony that will be witnessed by representatives from the Native American community as well as by individuals, groups and organizations from across the United States.

Lummi Tribe of Indians

The Lummi Reservation is seven miles northwest of Bellingham, Washington, in the western portion of Whatcom County, 95 miles north of Seattle. The reservation is a five-mile long peninsula which forms Lummi Bay on the west, Bellingham Bay on the east, with a smaller peninsula of Sandy Point, Portage Island and the associated tidelands. The Lummi Nation signed the treaty of Point Elliot in 1855, ceding much of their lands in western Washington. In return they received a reservation that originally covered 15,000 acres. Today, approximately 12,000 acres remain in Indian control.

Tribal Health and Prevention Programs

General comprehensive medical and dental, WIC, family planning, community health outreach (CHR) and health education

Community health services include mental health, nutritionist, and environmental health programs

Two psychiatrists and a pediatric dentist are on contract as consultants

The Lummi Nation operates an ambulatory direct care facility. The user population in 1998 was 4,442.  The center offers:

Contact:

Roni Scates
2592 Kwina Rd.
Bellingham, WA 98226

360-384-0464 ext 504
ronis@lummi-nation.bia.ed

Lummi Tribe of Indians

The Lummi Reservation is seven miles northwest of Bellingham, Washington, in the western portion of Whatcom County, 95 miles north of Seattle. The reservation is a five-mile long peninsula which forms Lummi Bay on the west, Bellingham Bay on the east, with a smaller peninsula of Sandy Point, Portage Island and the associated tidelands. The Lummi Nation signed the treaty of Point Elliot in 1855, ceding much of their lands in western Washington. In return they received a reservation that originally covered 15,000 acres. Today, approximately 12,000 acres remain in Indian control.

Tribal Health and Prevention Programs

• General comprehensive medical and dental, WIC, family planning, community health outreach (CHR) and health education
• Community health services include mental health, nutritionist, and environmental health programs
• Two psychiatrists and a pediatric dentist are on contract as consultants

The Lummi Nation operates an ambulatory direct care facility. The user population in 1998 was 4,442.

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Contact Information:
Roni Scates
2592 Kwina Rd.
Bellingham, WA 98226
Phone: 360-384-0464 ext 504
Email: ronis@lummi-nation.bia.edu

Lummi Nation

History
The Point Elliott Treaty established the Lummi Reservation. The reservation was originally 12,562.94 acres and was enlarged by executive order on Nov. 22, 1873 to 13,600 acres. The reservation was also meant for Nooksacks, Samishes and other local Indians but was primarily populated by Lummis. On the reservation a Roman Catholic mission was established which influenced the people there. There were many controversies with the white and the Lummi asked government to send out agent to stop the whites from harming them. Many of the people went out to work for white people like the Bellingham Bay coal mines making $700 a month. In 1974 Lummi fishing rights were restored by decision of a federal judge, provided legal protections to them in their fishing.

Government
A new constitution was adopted in 1970 which gave broader power to the tribal business council. The council was made up of 11 persons for a term of three years. They filed a claim for additional money from the United States saying the amount given to them was too low. The commission figured $52,067 was a fair market value in 1859 and the tribe received $33,634.13. The amount valued of the land and the amount given to tribe was not considered unconscionable. The commission would not pay an additional amount and the tribe appealed. In 1972 the Court of Claims ruled that the commission had placed the bare minimum fair market value on the land in 1859 and they reversed the decision and set a fair value of $90,634.13. On Oct. 22, 1970 the tribe was awarded the rest of the money $57,000.

Information provided by: A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest Pgs. 111-114