(singing and drumming)
- It's a wonderful day.
We're going to be launching our
tribal canoe house.
- What we're trying to accomplish
is to make sure
that tribal canoe society
grows and grows.
For many years, it had not been able
a strong prevalence in our society.
But we want to make sure
that education component
becomes a reality.
So it was 50 years ago
that this
was a dream of our executive director
at the time, Bernie Whitebear.
Shortly after the project
was embarked on about 1996,
he had passed away by 2000, so
lost momentum.
However, you know, again,
today is going to be the day
where we can make that dream a reality.
- And so today we get to celebrate a time
and place where the pattern is shifting
and hopefully with a lot of work,
it will be part
it is
and will continue
to be a part of the larger
trend toward equity, social justice
and economic representation.
- What's going to happen,
I think here is we're moving beyond
token acknowledgments
and putting our real dollars at work.
And we're building
a foundation
by which the Native story
would be told by Natives
and we have people listening.
- In a time of so much growth
here in the city of Seattle,
so much
construction, development,
population boom,
it really says something that we've
set aside space
for a Native cultural center right here
in South Lake Union,
especially one of the bigger hubs here
right now in Seattle.
It shows that we not only recognize
the people that were here before,
but we also respect them.
And we want other people that visit
this city to know about them, too.
- This house needs a canoe.
I think people don't know
about Native Americans in this immediate region,
and we want to make sure that it's a
something that society will gain
positivity from,
regarding knowledge
about Native Americans in this area.