Water Planning

5/2/25 letter to county:

Thirty years ago, the Washington Department of Ecology (DOE) initiated a water resources inventory of the Nooksack basin. Simultaneously, DOE facilitated roundtable discussions including caucuses of farmers, water resource providers, the construction industry and environmentalists. I was selected to represent the environmental caucus. With the Nooksack River chinook salmon threatened with extinction, there was a sense of urgency to our work. 

Hovering around the roundtable process were professional troublemakers looking for an opportunity to make money by drumming up resentment against the tribes. Water rights law is “first in time, first in line.” Since Lummi Nation and the Nooksack Indian Tribe have been here for 500 generations, they are by far the senior water rights holders. Treaty rights under federal law are considered property rights. The salmon are the tribes’ property. 

In 2018, the Center for World Indigenous Studies (CWIS) in Olympia published my six-part report, “Anti-Indian Movement,” documenting organized racism in Whatcom County 2013–17. As a think tank established by leaders from the National Congress of American Indians and the Assembly of First Nations (Canada), CWIS conducts research to advise tribes.


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