I would like to acknowledge the land that I was born onto as well as the peoples that came before, concurrent with, and after me. There is endless knowledge, power, solace, and grace to learn from the land and the people who have called it home for time immemorial.

The greater territorial lands of the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla peoples hold the present-day state of Oregon. More specifically the areas surrounding the Willamette Valley are the original territory of the Mollala, Yoncala, Winefelly, Chafan, Chelamela, Tsankupi, Chemapho, Alsea, Siuslaw, and Kalapuya peoples. From the years of 1848 to 1855 a series treaties, signed under duress, ceded the majority of land rights and allowed for the removal of Indigenous people’s to miniscule, sub-par reservations under the guise of providing the tribes with land while taking the large majority of the land for white settler colonists. In all of Oregon there are currently seven reservations totaling 848, 392 acres which equates to a paltry 1.6% of land within Oregon borders.

Indigenous people’s of Turtle Island (America) do not see the land as something that can be owned, rather it is a relative like every other for whom you care and who returns care to you. The natural world is deeply interwoven in ways that modern, Western science is only just beginning to understand but that Indigenous people’s have understood and respected all the world over.

For a list of consulted sources, local tribal websites, ways you can support Indigenous rights, and further reading please see my blog. The number one way to protect the earth and the people on it, including yourself, is through educating yourself about the beautiful diversity it carries.