"They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept but one; they promised to take our land, and they took it."

Red Cloud

Meanwhile the Duwamish Tribe continues to use gill nets that indiscriminately kill Sound wildlife, including ESA listed salmon and steelhead. Many of the salmon are stripped of their eggs they ship to Japan and then are tossed in a landfill. Yea, they are real stewards of our environment. Hypocrites.

Oh great, the Lummi Youth are here to guide us, with their superior understanding and mystical relationship to The Land. The same Lummi Youth whose program is funded by selling tons of polluting fireworks up in Fernie, and the Silver casino – a cash processing facility for BC, economy based on timber harvesting, runaway housing markets, and holiday jets from Asia.

Yeah, real stewards those Lummi.

Nice article. As far as @2 goes, I don't know that the Duwamish even have fishing rights without federal recognition. I know the Muckleshoot do fish the Duwamish.

What do they want Federal Recognition for? If they believe they're Indian, then they're Indian. Unless it's about Money.

That is a great article. I appreciate getting to read about the plight of modern day natives. We are still here, we still have to fight for rights and recognition to even exist. As is obvious by the previous comments, native peoples are routinely held to higher standards than non natives and dismissed for not adhering to whatever idea they have of what a native should be. So, again, I really appreciate this article.

@3, those fireworks probably pollute far less than petroleum.
WTF is up with SLOG connectors lately?

@5, if its about money, maybe that money is compensation for being screwed over and subjected to an attempted genocide, not to mention the far reaching consequences of a culture being thoroughly devastated.

The tribes have legal rights that could be trouble for Shell in court, so don't underestimate the tentacles of the Shell PR effort, could be seeding comments against tribes on this very page.

The public is invited to visit the Duwamish Longhouse & Cultural Center along the Duwamish River at 4705 W Marginal Way SW, Seattle this Saturday, May 23rd, 1pm for a free event Academic Elders: New books by Ken Tollefson and Vi Hilbert, with Jay Miller & Lois Dodson.

First world, white people problems.

With all these protests, I've decided not to give a fuck about any of them.

@9, what rights do what tribes have that could be trouble for Shell?

Please be specific to the tribe and right.

@11: did you read the article? The whole point was that it wasn't white people problems, and when we're all getting chemo for the cancers caused by carcinogens and chemicals from oil in the food and water supply~ it will be a you problem too.

@kate_13: Thank you. Well said.
@14 and all other trolls ad nauseum can return to your caves now.

@ Lummi, Duwamish, Swinomish. Upper Skagit, Tulalip, and all tribes along Puget Sound and Salish Sea; Warrior UP!

Keystone XL Pipeline KILLER argument:
If we're going to build pipe, build a shorter one from the Dakota Bakkan fields through less vulnerable habitat with safety upgrades to existing petro facilities through Oklahoma to the Gulf. This reduces demand for off-shore drilling there, reduces the hazards of rail transport and terminal operations, reaches our own east/west coast and world markets. Why wouldn't oil drillers and shippers use the safest corridors? Answer: They are bastards.