Remembering, rewriting and reconnecting

By Jyl Wheaton-Abraham
Reader Contributor

I spoke recently at a public hearing regarding a permit request at the mouth of Trestle Creek. While numerous attendees raised concerns about wildlife, water quality and property rights, I spoke about cultural resources and the importance of Trestle Creek to me, as a member of the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho. 

I went into the meeting knowing I would talk; as an archaeologist I have years of experience and knowledge about our region. Like many in the audience, I felt it was my duty to speak up in support of the preservation of nature and the rights of the public. As I sat in the audience, I realized while I share common interests with many of my Sandpoint neighbors, my motivations for protecting and preserving this region are inspired by a very different experience within the same space. 

My tribe, the Ktunaxa (Kootenai) people have been in this region for thousands of years, our Creation is rooted here: 

“I have created you Kootenai People to look after this beautiful land, to honor and guard and celebrate my Creation here, in this place.” — Quilxka Nupika (Elders of the Kootenai Nation and Members of the Tribe)

Many have tried to remove us from this land, from history, from having a future in this space. Each of these attempts at removal have damaged us, erasing us from local history, severing us from many of the places we traditionally call home. 

A map of First Nations communities in the region. Map created by Ktunaxa Nation Council.

We were pushed out of the Sandpoint area in the name of “progress,” forced to eke out an existence on 12 acres west of Bonners Ferry. Our commitment to the land and to our Creator helped us survive generations of poverty, racism and state-sanctioned abuse, understood collectively as the colonization of our lands, lives and bodies. 

At the end of my public testimony, I mentioned there had been a lot of talk about restoration that night, but for this project to be truly restorative, the land should be given back to my people. While I appreciated the applause, I said what I did not for attention, but to disrupt the ongoing erasure of the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho from their own land. I spoke up at the hearing and wrote this piece because to many, my Tribe is invisible, and remaining unseen and voiceless allows colonization to continue. 

Colonization is the process of settling amongst and taking control of indigenous lands and people. There is only one way to stop colonization, and that is to decolonize — your actions, your knowledge and your self. 

In an effort to decolonize both the public space and the minds of my friends and neighbors, my intentions that day and always are to remember, rewrite and reconnect my people to the shores of the lake. We often think of remembering as recalling something from the past, but for those experiencing colonization, remembering is putting ourselves back together.

Our bodies were taken from us, sent away to boarding schools and orphanages, assaulted and abused; remembering puts back together what was severed through the colonization process. Rewriting crosses out the myths colonization creates about history, ownership and who should be considered “Native” amongst colonized lands and people. Reconnecting physically returns indigenous people to lands they were driven off of, coerced into selling or abandoned in the face of the violent colonization of every aspect of their lives. 

There are many ways to decolonize as both an idea and an effort, which I hope we can explore together in the future. I think there are many in our region who want to disrupt systems that push aside local people, turn a place we call home into a commodity few can afford and erases the past because, “Change is inevitable.” I am sharing my words and perspective because I want to live in a place where my people are acknowledged and to help others understand what truly happened in the beautiful place we all call home. 

Jyl Wheaton-Abraham is a member of the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho. She has an M.A. in applied anthropology, focusing on archaeology and queer, indigenous decolonizing theory.