Thread by @sarah2020

This Indigenous People’s Day, let’s remember that our city exists on the unceded lands of the Multnomah Chinook, Clackamas, Cowlitz, Cow Creek, Siuslaw, Umpqua, and countless other nations who have been on these lands since time immemorial. Native people are still here.

The reality of colonization is that it is ongoing. Native people are the most over-policed of any racial group in the US. When we talk about Rethinking Public Safety, we must ensure Indigenous people are not targets of police violence.

But local law enforcement is not the only concern of Indigenous communities. We must remember that refugees and immigrants crossing the southern US border are Indigenous. The horrors they face in ICE camps and prisons, and targeting by Border Patrol, are issues we must address.

Portland’s urban Indian population is among the 10 largest in the United States. Native people in Multnomah County face higher rates of hunger, houselessness, contact with the child welfare system, and worse educational and economic attainment compared to their white peers.

These are not the failings of Indigenous people. Our city fails the Native community when we don’t acknowledge whose land we occupy, when Native youth can not access society without harassment by police, when Indigenous families are split up by foster care policies.

To make right on our substantial debt to Indigenous Portlanders, I have worked closely with many Native people to hear about issues like #MMIWG, police violence, climate, and issues of cultural appropriation and Native mascotry. My policies are informed by Native perspectives.

I will be a strong accomplice on issues where Native people lead, such as protection of our waterways and air quality, stewardship of our resources, police, prison, and child welfare reforms, and addressing climate change to protect the next seven generations.

I will work to ensure the City respects our government to government relationships with Oregon’s tribes, includes the input of Native leaders and organizations in all policy decisions, and protects the City’s investments in Native-focused services and tribally-informed programs.

We live in a time of a racial justice uprising that calls on all of us to reconsider our relationships to our ancestors and to history. I will look to our Indigenous neighbors for guidance in how Portland reconciles colonization with the present day needs of all Portlanders.

Today we honor the people of the land, and look toward a sustainable future for people of all nations, working in mutual respect, with integrity, and growing trust that we can build a better City government that more effectively serves and protects BIPOC Portlanders.