Statement by the New Portland Foundation on the National and State of Oregon Native American Heritage Month

Every day of every month our region’s New American communities’ elders are urged to teach our children proper reverence and respect for our Pacific Northwest’s Native American communities.

 Reverence, because our newcomer families daily experience the blessing of 150 centuries of indigenous peoples and communities caring for our region’s living creatures, our soil, rivers, estuaries, and abundant sea. We are deeply indebted to these nearly 400 native Northwest nations, tribes, and bands.

Respect, because our resettling families understand the essential role native peoples have taken in daily speaking up for our rich soils and forests, for our living streams and ocean, for all living beings making their homes in this region, as we make our new homes here.

We are grateful to Oregon’s nine sovereign Native Nations for stewarding our state’s health and happiness.  Because our families now share and suffer the threat of vanishing ecosystems and extinguishing species, we are profoundly aware of the urgency of Pacific Northwest indigenous wisdom in sustaining the blessings of our shared region.