Commemorating Treaty Day through collaboration, listening and learning

Bellingham Public Schools will honor Treaty Day as a day of recognition this school year and there will be no school on Jan. 22, 2024. Treaty Day in our region marks the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855. The treaty enacted a government-to-government relationship between the United States government and many Coast Salish and Indigenous nations, including the Lummi Nation and the Nooksack Tribe, in the Pacific Northwest.

To acknowledge the tribal connections to the land we reside on, this year’s school year calendar honors this important and solemn anniversary. This day off is not mandated by the federal government, the state of Washington or the City of Bellingham, but rather is a staff and district recognized day of acknowledgement of tribal history. Other school districts have added treaty days to their school calendars in recent years. Yakima School District added a June 9 treaty day and, more locally, Ferndale School District added Jan. 22 to their calendar in 2020.

Commemorating Treaty Day in the district calendar is an important reminder that we reside on the territories of the Coast Salish peoples, a concept reiterated in land acknowledgements about our region.

Lessons about Treaty Day

Teaching about treaties, treaty rights and tribal sovereignty is part of the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction’s Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State mandated curriculum in our schools. This important curriculum acknowledges the rich traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of our state and teaching about the Treaty of Point Elliott deepens the understanding of this history.

This school year, some helpful tools were available to district teachers. BPS staff, working closely with Lummi Nation members on the critical lessons to include, developed grade level-based learning on the impact of the Treaty of Point Elliott. Each lesson focuses on the Indigenous perspective and voice and attempts to give a more complete and accurate history of what transpired and its repercussions. While the treaty sadly forced Indigenous peoples onto designated reservations, it reserved tribes inherent rights to self-determination as a sovereign nation while protecting their sacred connection to the land and waters, the source of their livelihood and culture. Fishing and hunting rights were preserved.

In a recent lesson at the fourth-grade level, key concepts included defining a treaty as an agreement and promise, explaining what sovereignty and reciprocity means, and what a reservation is. Touching on the history of broken promises and the hard-fought wins to maintain their Indigenous ways, these important concepts were brought forward through the years to present day and were used to emphasize the importance of understanding a full history. This helps make decisions for a more equitable and fair future.

Kirsten Jensen and Yana Mansfield, instructional coaches, have been passionate advocates of the Since Time Immemorial curriculum in our schools and consistently looks for important ways to collaborate with our Lummi Nation and Nooksack Tribe neighbors on these lessons. Relationship-building and centering of Indigenous voices and stories is at the heart of the Since Time Immemorial work.

Bellingham Public Schools wants to recognize Lummi and Nooksack members for their time, collaboration and important feedback on these newly developed lessons, with special thanks to Cynthia Wilson, Renee Swan Waite and Darrell Hillaire. Natasha Frey from Children of the Setting Sun Productions, and Kristen French from Western Washington University were also critical thought partners on how to share the lesson. In addition, BPS also wants to acknowledge the collaborative work of many BPS teachers, IB coordinators and instructional coaches, as well as district leadership involved in equity, diversity and inclusion work. She hopes that this collaboration and advocacy continues as part of sustained collective learning between our local tribes and Bellingham Public Schools.

We asked Jensen a few questions to better understand the scope of this collaborative work.

As a passionate teacher of the Since Time Immemorial curriculum in BPS, what are your biggest hopes with its lessons?

Jensen: In our schools, our biggest hope is that we are all learning how to contribute to and build a more equitable and peaceful world. One way we do this is by reflecting on our own identities and cultures and by learning about other identities and cultures in our community. By doing so we learn how history continues to impact who we are today. This expands the way we understand each other and how we all view the world through a cultural lens.

When students learn from Indigenous voices, they have opportunities to learn more ways to view the world they learn from stories, perspectives and knowledge that continues to be marginalized by our educational systems. This collaborative work with our Lummi Nation and Nooksack Tribe neighbors on the Since Time Immemorial curriculum has been critical to the success of our lessons.

What are some of the biggest takeaways that students have as they learn about Indigenous peoples’ history?

Jensen: Students ask important questions that help educators stop and reflect as adults on what we need to learn from that question and what might be the best ways to teach into those questions. When students talk about expanding their lens and view of the world, when they describe how their experiences shape how they view the world, and that people with different lived experiences may have different views, this is getting us closer to our goals of better understanding and valuing diverse cultural ways of knowing.

Treaty Day is now commemorated in BPS. Why is this such an important step?

Jensen:  It is important history to understand how we are all treaty people and that the past impacts who we are today. Treaty rights that were promised still must be maintained. Students learn how they can commemorate this day by teaching others the stories they are learning, advocating for the rights of all people, working to take care of our land, and building relationships across all cultures and identities.

Annual Treaty Day Film Festival
In January 2024, BPS students from three different grade levels (grades 4, 7 and 11) will have a field trip opportunity to the Mt. Baker Theatre where Indigenous stories will be shared through films of Children of the Setting Sun Productions, a Lummi-based film company.

In the 2022-23 school year, all seventh graders in the district attended the Pickford Film Center’s Treaty Day Film Festival. See related story from January 2023.

Additional resources about tribal treaty rights:
Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission: Understanding Tribal Treaty Rights in Western Washington