Tsipa Swan Coaching is a proudly woke space, and if you don’t like that, have a great day…somewhere else! xo
Tsipa Swan Coaching is a proudly woke space, and if you don’t like that, have a great day…somewhere else! xo
I currently live on (but do not own) land ceded by the Snoqualmie, Suquamish, and Stillaguamish tribes in the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855. Although reservations were legally agreed upon and contracts signed, the United States Government never established reservations for the Snoqualmish people (nor for the Duwamish, Skagit, or Snohomish signatories of the same treaty). Learn more here, with thanks to the Duwamish Tribe.
The Walla Walla, Cayuse, and Umatilla tribes that also inhabited these lands signed a separate treaty, also in 1855, that ceded 6.4 million acres of territory and created a 250,000 acre reservation in Oregon. Of that, about 172,000 acres of the reservation currently remain in tribal possession, although the CTUIR website (Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation) states that almost half of this land is now non-Native owned. Learn more here, with thanks to the CTUIR.
As a benefactor of stolen land and resources, I have the responsibility to decide how I want to deal with this “gift,” and I do not yet have a satisfactory response. I’m sorry for that. What I do know is that I look forward to a time when stewardship and “ownership” (such as it is) of this land is returned to older historical residents such as the tribes mentioned above, so that she and her children may be nursed back to health under a kinder world’s care. If I am still permitted to dwell here when that occurs, it will be an honor that I hope to live up to.
I am a white, straight-passing, cisgender, essentially able-bodied native-born American woman of European (generally Protestant) descent, with the appearance of relatively high socioeconomic status and the benefits of higher education in my native tongue. As of this writing, I have multiple other privileges: although I have had major chronic health issues, I still have largely good health and good mobility. Although I have had major mental health struggles, I am essentially in good mental health at this time and have high overall intelligence. I am fortunate to have access to health care and the support of many lovely people in my life. My first language is English and I can communicate in it well and easily. This list of my privileges is not complete, nor is it intended to be so.
Any ideas I share and any opinions I put forward should and must be taken with these things in mind; although I strive to listen to and learn from the perspectives of people who have different experiences, I am and always will be a product of my background and body. Please always remember that, whatever I may think or say, the ultimate test of whether something is true or right for you is whether it accords with your own values, choices, and knowing. The fact that I know something to be true for me does not necessarily preclude a totally different thing being true for you — but I hope we can still be in dialogue when that (inevitably) occurs. I appreciate your being here, and reading this obscure note!