Center for World Indigenous Studies

I was only nineteen when I first saw the tumbling falls of the upper Skagit from behind some huckleberry bushes that grew along a river path that I’d stumbled on while picnicking. Having just moved from the dusty pines of the Yakima where Peregrine falcons nest in the volcanic cliffs, I was still absorbing the... more →

Disheartening as our absence of communal relations is in America, it does help to explain our persistent affection toward institutions, as well as our attachment to their recognition and acknowledgment in validating our self-worth — indeed, in bestowing on us the right to exist. Unhealthy as this institutionalized relationship is for us, both individually and... more →

If communication in its myriad forms of expression is what comprises a culture, then the particular architecture or design of communicating is what determines that culture’s level of human consciousness. An emphasis on beauty in art, song, dance, and storytelling will produce a very different consciousness than one inclined toward ugliness. It almost seems trite... more →

The social practice of walkabout by the world’s oldest indigenous culture serves many purposes, one of which is acquiring perspective through the literal travel through time and space at a pace that allows continuous connectivity to one’s environs, dreams, ancestors, and sense of place. Traveling slow for those of us severed from our ancestral roots... more →

The primary mission of institutions charged with protecting the public health is to contain outbreaks and to prevent epidemics associated with infectious disease. The first order of business in the public health regime is to isolate and study the various pathogens that pose such a threat to society, in order to determine the most effective... more →