CAMPAIGN
“Our bodies are made of the elements of the Earth.
PURPOSE: Gather the faith community to stand alongside Indigenous communities of the Northwest to protect Indigenous sovereignty, amplify tribal-led land return and ecosystem restoration, Native cultural revitalization, and active decolonization of land, water, and air resources, in the hope to restore and honor Indigenous wisdoms and environmental expertise.
VISION: IPJC envisions creating a network of faith-based leaders that support Indigenous tribal leaders as co-managers of natural resources, per federal treaties, and parishioners and youth in being in right relationship with all of Creation. All of this is inspired and modeled according to the concrete expertise regarding salmon, ecosystem recovery, and dam removal that Indigenous communities hold, as well as a rightful sharing of the historical environmental legacy in our region.
Goals:
1. As a covenant people, restore and protect treaty rights particularly as they relate to access to salmon and traditional fishing grounds.
2. Honestly and authentically name the harmful impact that the Catholic Church and colonial settlers have had, and continue to have, on Indigenous communities, including specific examination of the impact of the 16th-century doctrine of discovery and papal bulls.
3. Amplify regional tribal voices that seek Indigenous cultural revitalization, ecosystem restoration, river pollution monitoring to ensure salmon survival, and collective respect of Native land and burial grounds alongside Lower Snake River.
4. Provide concrete actionable pathways for Catholics to live out Laduato Si’ & Laudete Deum by learning about and supporting environmental justice initiatives led by Indigenous neighbors in their region.
5. Co-design active conciliation process that invites Catholics to witness and foster localized community action that addresses Indigenous land dispossession, soil, air, and water pollution and its impact on Indigenous populations, and the dismissal
6. Pass the Columbia Basin River Initiative, which includes removal of the four Lower Snake River dams.
Values:
• Subsidiarity – the folks that are closest to the pain and harm hold the solutions for how to move forward, in this case we believe that those communities are the Salmon People of the Northwest.
• Encounter – through spending time with the land, water, plants, animals, and people connected to it, each of us can restore our connection and heal broken relationships, creating new life and possibilities.
• Reciprocity – in recognition that we are only able to move forward together for the common good it is through generative sharing of co-responsibility in the healing of creation with a focus on the health of the Columbia and Lower Snake Rivers and the species that inhabit its nearby ecosystems on land, water, and air.
Laudato Si’ and Laudate Deum
The following themes and connected topics emerge in both of Pope Francis’ encyclicals on the environment. These among others connect to this campaign informing and shaping the connections between our faith and this issue.
Cultural erasure due to environmental degradation – Indigenous communities are inextricably related to the physical places they inhabit, and as those places are destroyed so are their culture and existence.
Endangered species and biodiversity –The extinction of many species creates great urgency, as it ultimately weakens environments and risks our livelihood.
Technocratic paradigm – There is an overreliance on technical and market-based solutions for healing our common home.
“ Many intensive forms of environmental exploitation and degradation not only exhaust the resources which provide local communities with their livelihood, but also undo the social structures which, for a long time, shaped cultural identity and their sense of the meaning of life and community. The disappearance of a culture can be just as serious, or even more serious, than the disappearance of a species of plant or animal.”
—(LAUDATO SI’145)
Campaign Highlights
Sacred Salmon – A Matter of Spirit Fall 2023 –Read it here!
bit.ly/3xHYOLn
All Our Relations Campaign –Fall 2023
Over two weeks, the art piece (pictured right) “All Our Relations,” created by Lummi tribal member Cyaltsa Finkbonner, traveled to seven different places in the Northwest in order to depict what a free-flowing river might look like and the interconnected world we inhabit together. Centered around storytelling and prayer, the community learned about the cultural significance of salmon to the Salish Seas People and how salmon is integral to the livelihood and health of the entire Pacific Northwest.
Sacred Salmon Town Hall – Spring 2024
Over 150 folks gathered at Seattle University for the culminating event of the Northwest Ignatian Advocacy Summit. High school and college students led a town hall with staff members from Representative Pramila Jayapal and Kim Schrier’s offices, sharing why salmon recovery, dam removal, and tribal rights are important and vital for our community.
How to get involved:
Palouse Tribal Gathering and Canoe Healing Journey –Spring 2024
IPJC staff attended a Palouse Tribe gathering on April 19 at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers, commemorating the painful history of their community being stripped of its land through eminent domain laws when Ice Bridge Harbor Dam was built, flooding sacred sites and burial grounds. Connected to this gathering, a few weeks later, the community gathered for a multi-day healing canoe journey down part of the Snake River. Both events featured powerful truth telling, planting native species to heal the land and each of us, and were a great source of relationship and trust building. Our team has been honored to witness such beautiful and important moments, and we are grateful for the ongoing partnership grounding all of our Sacred Salmon work.
• Complete IPJC’s Action Alert promoting the Columbia Basin River Initiative: https://bit.ly/help-us-care
• Access our Sacred Salmon Toolkit to gather people in your community to meet with your legislators: https://bit.ly/Sacred-Salmon-Campaign-Toolkit
• Host a screening of Covenant of the Salmon People, available for free on PBS: KBTC Documentaries | Covenant of The Salmon People | PBS
• Join IPJC’s Sacred Salmon Campaign Organizing Team: https://bit.ly/Sacred-Salmon-Organizing-Team
All Our Relations, Olympia stop Sacred Salmon Town Hall participant Gonzaga Prep-Sacred Salmon Town Hall