The Natural Way: Indigenous Voices
Danita Washington

Maintaining Native Traditional Values in a Changing World

Danita Washington will speak at Natural Way-Indigenous Voices about maintaining native traditional values in a changing world. Danita was raised on the Lummi Reservation in Washington where she received the teachings she strives to put into daily practice and assist others to live up to their teachings as well. She is the eldest of eleven children, the mother of two grown children, auntie to over thirty-six nieces and nephews, and considered auntie to many more.

Danita is the Coordinator for the Lummi Community Mobilization Against Drugs Initiative (CMAD) and actively participates in the Lummi Nation Poverty Elimination Planning Project. As the Director of the Lummi Youth Outreach Program for eleven years she served the needs of Lummi Nation Youth and their families. Youth Outreach Program services are provided as a result of referral by the youth themselves or their parents and delivers through a comprehensive team of paraprofessional and professional mental health, child welfare and social services staff.

As an early proponent of Youth court, Ms. Washington worked with the Lummi Nation Law and Justice Commission to reform the Tribal Justice System, establishing a Public Defender and the Tribal Juvenile Justice System for the Lummi Nation. She holds the distinction of being the first Native American female law enforcement officer in the Pacific Northwest, employed by the Puget Sound Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1976. She then worked for the Inter-Mountain Inter-Tribal Boarding School (BIA) in Brigham City, Utah. This is where Ms. Washington began her work with youth with grief, abandonment, and abuse issues, as well as stress from normal adolescence.

Date/Time: November 10, 2006 7:00 – 9:00p.m.

Location: Native American Student and Community Center at Portland State University, SW Broadway and Jackson, Portland, Oregon

Cost: $10 - $20 Donation to support the Elders (no one turned away for lack of funds)