03/20/2026
Respect 🙏
Tânisi, nitisan.
My relatives.
Let me speak to this the way I feel it… the way the old ones would want it understood.
Because when I read something like this about the Chinook Nation…
I don’t just see a headline.
I see a people who never disappeared.
I see a nation that has always been there…
along the river…
along the coast…
in the wind, in the tides, in the language that still lives.
And now a state says, “we recognize you.”
That can be a good thing.
It can be a moment of respect.
A moment where people stand up and say your name out loud again.
That matters.
Names matter.
Witnessing matters.
Being seen… in a system that tried not to see you…
that carries weight.
But we have to be clear about something, nehiyawak.
Recognition…
is not the same as existence.
A nation does not come into being
when a government passes a resolution.
A nation does not become real
when a piece of paper says so.
The Chinook were already a nation
long before Washington State existed.
Long before the United States drew its borders.
Long before anyone stood in a senate chamber
and spoke their name into a microphone.
They were already there.
Trading.
Governing.
Speaking their language.
Living in relationship with that land since time immemorial.
So when Chairman Tony Johnson says
that sovereignty is inherent…
That is the truth our people have always known.
Sovereignty is not something given.
It is something carried.
In the people.
In the language.
In the land.
In the memory.
êkwa…
At the same time, we don’t dismiss moments like this.
Because even though a state cannot create a nation…
it can choose to acknowledge what it once tried to erase.
And that matters too.
It matters for the young ones.
It matters for visibility.
It matters for the ongoing fight for federal recognition—
because we know that fight is not just symbolic.
It affects land.
Resources.
Jurisdiction.
The ability to care for your own people.
So this moment sits in two places at once.
It is not everything.
But it is not nothing.
It is a step…
in a much longer walk.
And when I think about what real recognition looks like…
I don’t just think about resolutions.
I think about:
Land being returned.
Jurisdiction being respected.
Languages being supported—not just celebrated.
Nations making decisions for themselves without interference.
I think about a world where our people don’t have to keep proving
that we are who we say we are.
Because that’s the deeper truth here.
No nation should have to spend decades
asking to be recognized
for something it has never stopped being.
The Chinook Nation is not “becoming” recognized.
They are being re-seen.
And maybe that is where we are in this time…
Not creating nations.
But remembering them.
Ekosi.
Walk gently.
—Kanipawit Maskwa (Standing Bear)
