SWACH Land Acknowledgment

We acknowledge, with humility, that SWACH’s office in Vancouver, and the Southwest Washington Region that we serve, is the ancestral home of many indigenous peoples including the Cowlitz, Chinook, Klickitat, Yakama, Grand Ronde, Wasco, and Wishram.   

We recognize the incredible resilience of these people despite hundreds of years of colonialism that has worked to oppress Native Peoples, erase their languages and culture, and separate them from their lands.  We acknowledge that we are part of a system which has made and broken countless promises, and we have work to do to build and repair relationships with the indigenous communities in our region.  

The promise of health care for Tribal communities is guaranteed in the constitution. As an organization dedicated to equitable access to whole-person care, we have a special obligation to recognize and follow through on this promise. This land acknowledgment serves only as a first small step towards fulfilling that obligation.