Illustration by Ard Su

Larry Campbell served as Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community for decades prior to his work on the Indigenous Health Indicators. (Photo by Nathan Abrams)

Through their research, the team identified community connection, natural resources security, cultural use, education, self-determination and resilience as indicators of health relevant to the Swinomish community.

“It’s a more holistic way of doing things rather than the linear western method,” Campbell said. “One of my long-term goals is to try to make a difference in the way that science is being conducted.”

Campbell sees this work as another arm of the Swinomish adaptation to climate change. Given that the IHI framework of health acknowledges the interconnectedness of the people and the land, a changing climate necessarily impacts the whole health of the community. Campbell feels that solutions to these challenges can be found in traditional Swinomish lifeways.

“I always say that when you look at the problems that we’re dealing with today, the dysfunctions are not ours,” Campbell said. “They don’t originate from our communities, our tribal upbringing.”

Campbell champions the revitalization of traditional foodways as particularly vital work. The tribe has undertaken recent efforts toward increasing access to their traditional foods through their traditional land stewardship practices. At the Kukutali Preserve, a park co-managed by the tribe and Washington state, several of such projects are now underway.

Camas, a starchy bulb with a vibrant purple flower, was once a staple of diets for many Coast Salish peoples. Camas’s meadow habitat has traditionally been maintained with controlled burns. Today, just one small patch of camas has been identified on the Swinomish reservation at the distant edge of the Kukutai Preserve on Flagstaff Point. It has been fenced off from public access so the tribe can protect and study the plant, with an eye toward reintroducing the plant into the community.

The Swinomish reservation’s upland areas are lush temperate rainforest. The mile-long Kiket Trail leads across the Kukutali Preserve to the tribe’s protected camas field at Flagstaff Point. (Photo by Nathan Abrams)

Swinomish people also have a deep history of mariculture. Many of their traditional foods, such as salmon, crab, and clams, come from the sea. As with camas, there is a longstanding history of ecological relationship and management within Swinomish tradition. The tribe is now planning to build a clam garden, a rock wall in the intertidal zone, along the shore at Kukutali Preserve to increase clam habitat on their reservation and reintroduce this practice into the community.

“When we eat those foods today, a lot of times our body craves it,” Campbell said. “We’re feeding our spirit by eating our traditional foods.”

Swinomish people have always adapted to and stewarded their environment. In Campbell’s holistic health framework, environmental and community healing must be approached as one. Nourishing the land nourishes the people in turn.

“Having pride in yourself as a people has wonderful healing qualities.”