Increasing tribal visibility

CHENEY - New Eastern Washington University Tribal Relations Director Erin Ross sees her primary focus as communicator - internally with current Native American students but just as important externally with those communities they come from.

That communication includes equal parts presenting the value of an education at EWU and what that can mean to those communities, along with listening to what those communities need and want. Both involve getting out and meeting with representatives of local governments, school districts and businesses anywhere Native Americans live, helping protect and increase the presence of Native American cultures in society.

A native of Spokane, Ross lived in Seattle for about 14 years before returning to attend Eastern Washington University. She earned a bachelor's degree in government in 1999 and a master's degree in urban and regional planning with a specialization in Tribal planning in 2015 - the latter while running several businesses and raising a daughter as a single mom.

"It took a bit longer than I had planned, but I finally got it done," she said.

Ross served as Lisa Brown's chief of staff in the current state Department of Commerce Director's 2018 unsuccessful bid to unseat 5th District Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. Prior to taking the EWU position, Ross worked as planning manager for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe where she was involved in economic development, land use, transportation and tribal sovereignty, with one of her first projects being using CARES Act funding to build Covid-19 quarantine housing.

"Erin's combination of political leadership and tribal engagement provides EWU with valuable and significant perspective and capabilities," EWU interim President David May said in a statement announcing her hiring.

Ross said the land use and tribal sovereignty challenges with the Tribe stemmed mostly from non-Native American landowners seeking to build but not realizing they were on tribal land and subject to tribal laws. Most of this was due to a lack of education on the landowners part, not only about Native American lands - which have sovereignty separate from the U.S. - but also about the existence of the Tribe at all, believing they no longer existed.

"That can be really dangerous to Native Americans, that level of invisibility," Ross said. "We are still here. We are here trying to build our communities and the quality of our lives."

Ross has first-hand experience with invisibility as a member of the Cowlitz Tribe in Southwest Washington. The Cowlitz fought for decades before receiving federal recognition as a tribe in 2002, and 160 acres of land for a reservation in 2008.

The Cowlitz lost virtually everything, including their language, something Ross said they are trying to reconstruct using about 200 recordings of native speakers.

"I understand what it's like to belong to a landless tribe," Ross said. "I understand what happens when you lose a piece of your culture."

Ross said destruction of Native American cultures has gone mostly untaught in public schools. She hopes this invisibility changes as more Native Americans become a presence in society.

Ross said it's important for non-Native American students to understand this and other aspects of tribal society, including land use and sovereignty issues, and seeks to do this by adding classes in other EWU curriculum. But she also said a primary focus of her position is looking outward, working with governments, public and tribal schools and communities on areas of common interests where possible.

Ross said EWU faculty and staff played supportive roles in her educational pursuits, and she wants to communicate that and the university's "sincere desire to be a good partner in tribal relations and communities" to Native Americans. She also wants to hear from them about how EWU can be supportive of their own goals and objectives.

"It's a listening position too," Ross said. "They will share what their needs are."

Ross began on July 1, and has been busy with several projects. One is reopening the Lucy Covington Initiative, an partnership with the Colville Confederated Tribes to honor the legacy of a tribal activist key to restoration of Native American rights and sovereignty.

The initiative was sidelined during the pandemic, but Ross said they are reviving it and its vision of "supporting future leaders, creating a confluence of culture and causes and development of a Lucy Covington archives" at a new center for EWU Native American students.

Ross said there are other data projects as well, which are critical to begin about to accurately address the needs of Native American students as well as other student groups at the university.

"There's plenty of things to do," she added. "It's the planner in me. I'm ready to get going."

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.