U.S. Treasurer Marilynn Malerba met with Lummi Nation leaders, entrepreneurs and tribal members Tuesday, March 28, to discuss tribal needs and future business development in the region.
Throughout her visit, leaders from the Lummi Nation, including from the tribe’s council, the Lummi Indian Business Council (LIBC) and the Lummi Community Development and Financial Institution (CDFI), discussed how they’ve used federal grants, and how they’re working with local businesses to fortify the tribe’s economy.
In recent years, the tribe has received about $105 million in federal funds, and part of the visit, Malerba said, was to understand how the tribe used the money to support small businesses.
“We know that there has been this historic underinvestment in Indian Country, and this is hopefully just the beginning of restoring what has been lost in the country, and helping Native nations rebuild in ways that are impactful to them, and in ways that respect their culture,” Malerba told Cascadia Daily News on Tuesday.
“You can’t do that sitting in Washington, D.C. You have to come visit the community and understand what the community’s needs are, what their priorities are, and how they structure their services around their culture.”
Much of the visit emphasized the tribe’s fisheries and salmon fishing fleet.
U.S. Treasurer Marilynn Malerba, left, LIBC Chairman Anthony Hillaire, middle, and LIBC Secretary William Jones Jr. laugh while looking at canoes at Stommish Grounds. (Finn Wendt/Cascadia Daily News)
“We showed her our Gooseberry Point boat launch, and gave her a glimpse of the fishing industry, as well as our natural resource and social economy to give her a better idea of who we are,” explained LIBC Chairman Anthony Hillaire. “The very center of our way of life, as well as our economy, is salmon. Here at Lummi, we consider ourselves the salmon people.”
The tribe showed Malerba around the Lummi Nation, as well as Bellingham’s Squalicum Harbor, where many of the Lummi’s fishing fleet docks vessels, and the Te’Ti’Sen Center, a marketplace with businesses owned and operated by tribal members.
U.S. Treasurer Marilynn Malerba talks with fishermen at Squalicum Harbor. (Finn Wendt/Cascadia Daily News)
At Te’Ti’Sen, Malerba met with several of the businesses, including the Crossfit Kwen Kwem facility and a fish market.
“Te’Ti’Sen is a building built for small businesses and entrepreneurs,” Hillaire said. “We stopped to give her a better idea of our efforts to support and give better opportunities to our tribal members that are building their businesses.”
This treasury visit is one of the first during the Biden administration following the COVID-19 pandemic. The Lummi Nation was the first stop for Malerba and her entourage from Treasury, and in the coming days the group will meet with other tribes around Washington state.
Malerba, whose Indigenous name is Mutáwi Mutáhash (“Many Hearts”), is the first Indigenous person to serve as the U.S. treasurer, and is the first female chief in modern history of the Mohegan Tribe.
“I tell our tribal nations I said ‘yes’ for all of us, because it’s the first time there has been an Indigenous treasurer,” she said.
Members of the Lummi Nation, too, appreciated Malerba’s presence.
“It’s really, really powerful and beautiful to see the conservations that we had today,” Hillaire said at the end of the meeting. “To have somebody in the office that shares in our history, shares in our hurts and pains, shares in our resilience, shares in our effort to create a better future, really goes a long way.”
