Five fourth-grade students, donning bright orange shirts with “Truth and Reconciliation” written on the front, shared what they’ve learned about the Treaty of Point Elliott at Whatcom Community College.
“We are all treaty people,” the Happy Valley Elementary students said in unison as they closed out their presentation.
Throughout the school year, the group and their peers have learned about the history and culture of local tribes like the Lummi Nation and the Nooksack Indian Tribe. The kids attended Children of the Setting Sun Production’s (CSSP) Treaty Day Festival and fielded visits from people like Rena Priest, a Lummi Nation member and the 2021 Washington State Poet Laureate, and Jason LaClair, a local artist known for his murals and story poles.
The students and local leaders shared the John McCoy (lulilaš) Since Time Immemorial curriculum at a community event Wednesday, April 24 at Whatcom Community College (WCC). The event was hosted in partnership by Bellingham Public Schools, Happy Valley’s Parent Teacher Association, WCC, CCSP and Whatcom CARE. The curriculum teaches Washington students about tribal history and culture, treaty rights, and contemporary tribal and state government relations.
Next, middle school students from Fairhaven Middle School shared what they’d learned about boarding schools, the once-proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal and the impacts of the Manifest Destiny. They also shared lessons learned about the continued presence of local tribes.
Representatives from Squalicum High School’s Native American Student Union — the first club of its kind in the district — shared the importance of making their voices heard and of learning their history.
The curriculum became a requirement in 2015, and since then districts across the state have worked to implement the new lessons and information that had not been taught in the past. Schools did not receive additional funding to assist in the transition, nor did the tribes who worked to support the education.
“There’s a lot of learning for teachers to do to feel comfortable teaching the topics that they didn’t learn in school,” said Natasha Frey, the education principal for the Setting Sun Institute (SSI).
CSSP was invited to bridge a gap between schools and local tribes, CEO Darrell Hillaire said. Their goal is to not step in front of tribes, he said.
Their partnership began a few years ago with Happy Valley Elementary and has since expanded to working with Fairhaven Middle School. Last year, Happy Valley’s PTA hosted the first Since Time Immemorial Community Night, which expanded to a larger event this year due to its initial success.
Frey said they’ve focused on bringing local Indigenous artists and culture bearers into the classrooms to teach the students alongside their teachers. They’re documenting the work in hopes that other districts will follow the example.
In the future, they hope to have a long list of local artists and culture bearers who want to share different subjects in classrooms, giving teachers various sources to invite into classes.
“Tribal approaches to many things can be included in many different subject areas, as well, not just social studies,” she said. “We’re trying to elevate what it looks like to implement Since Time Immemorial by making it contemporary and across many different subjects.”
The goal is also to educate students about the present lives of Indigenous neighbors and not refer to them only as people and communities of the past.
CSSP’s effort to further educate the community has resulted in the creation of the Setting Sun Institute, a new subsidiary.
“Both organizations we’ve put into some baskets of create, share and educate,” SSI Executive Director Sky Scholfield said. “Productions create cinematic powerful pieces that connect with people. The communication team shares everything that we do with the world, and SSI tries to create a deeper understanding with people through education.”
Since Time Immemorial is a big focus for education, it is also working to build a digital heritage database to catalog and house all the CSSP productions and other materials to provide further context and resources.
Hailey Hoffman is a CDN visual journalist; reach her at haileyhoffman@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 103.
