NUIFC Sit Down // A Conversation with Seattle Mayoral Candidate Colleen Echohawk
A New Generation of Leadership - Colleen Echohawk Seattle Mayoral Candidate
Colleen Echohawk, an enrolled member of both the Kithehaki Band of the Pawnee Nation and the Upper Athabascan people of Mentasta Lake, is running to lead the city of Seattle. If elected, Echohawk would be the city’s first Indigenous mayor. Drawing on her experience as Executive Director of Chief Seattle Club, Echohawk aims to address the city’s homelessness crisis and continue her work of advancing economic, racial, and climate justice. She agreed to sit down with the NUIFC in our first installment of our Sit-Down Series to discuss her motivations, plans, and how she brings her Indigenous way of life into running for office.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
What motivated you to run for Mayor?
You know, I've been working with and serving the homeless community for a long time, specifically our urban native community that is facing homelessness. I’ve been on the other side of the table, working so hard and trying to advocate for our relatives who are experiencing homelessness and we've been pretty successful. I was the Executive Director of Chief Seattle Club and we've made a lot of progress that I've worked really hard to accomplish. However, there are still places where our communities have just been completely underserved and under-resourced. No one is listening, no one is asking for our voice and leadership. I’d been thinking about running for mayor and people had been asking me every day, will you think about it? Are you thinking about it? And I had this moment one day where I was talking with someone in city hall about an issue and just realized they had no clue, they had no understanding, they were just trying to figure it out. We were just data to them. I’d been thinking about running for mayor and I was being told from all over the place that I’d have a viable candidacy. I owe it to my children, I owe to the people that I work for, and I owe to Indian country to try and to do my best to be on the other side of that table. To be in that mayor's office with my framework of understanding that our communities deserve someone who understands where they've been and what they're struggling with.
What would you say has been your biggest focus while running for Mayor? The specific issue you want people to associate with your campaign.
100% homelessness, that’s the reason why I'm running for Mayor. We've had six years of declaring homelessness a state of emergency and it's so frustrating to know that we could be doing more. We could be giving our homeless community so many more resources and solutions and we just haven't. And let’s be clear, in this city and around the country, Native people have the highest rate of homelessness in urban centers. Black people as well have disproportionate rates of homelessness. We’re seeing how homelessness is a symptom of systemic racism and that is just a part of who we are as a country. So, I am running because I am so frustrated that we have not treated this like the emergency that it is. That we're not giving as much as we possibly can to our homeless community and helping solve this crisis for them.
I am by far the most qualified to lead the city forward if homelessness is the biggest issue for someone. Our city cannot be the kind of city that we want to be if we don’t address this. I also have a lot of other qualifications that will make me a good mayor, I've been an executive director for seven years, and the mayor its core is the executive of the city. I'm also really excited to bring what I've learned in Indian country to the mayor's office and really make some pretty amazing changes.
One thing we always want to ask about here at the NUIFC, is how has being a Native candidate influenced your campaign? What teachings or lessons from your background have you brought with you in this race?
It’s influenced every single part of it. I would not be doing this if I didn't care so much for our people, especially our people who are experiencing homelessness. I just get filled with frustration and anger when I think about how many native people are experiencing homelessness. That has fueled me and it continues to be my passion as I move forward to hopefully this next role as Mayor of Seattle.
I also called my elders and I asked them for guidance and for wisdom. That was a big part of my decision-making, and I will take that to city hall. I'm committed to having an elder council that I’d meet with once a month to listen to and to hear their guidance and wisdom. I’m loving the idea of taking some of the principles and philosophies of the way that we work in Indian country right to city hall. I want to break down some of that gatekeeping that has just been a part of the city hall experience and really bring who I am as a native woman into this position.
What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned about yourself while running for Mayor?
I've learned that I'm not in this by myself, that I have such an amazing community and family who are just pulling for me and giving me everything they have. I have some close friends who said, listen, ‘Colleen, we think you should do this and if you do we will stick with you.’ And oh my gosh, they have done it. So I think that I am just really aware that I'm not doing this alone, but I'm doing it with my community and family, surrounding me and supporting me. It's really hard to run for mayor, but it's not too hard with the kind of support I'm getting from my friends.
So many statistics around Native people, urban Native people specifically, are usually bleak. We are disproportionately at the bottom of most socioeconomic indicators. What would be your strategy as mayor to address those inequities in our communities?
The number one thing is that I would really listen to the urban native community here in Seattle. I’d be asking for their guidance and support as we move forward. I’d do my best to really make sure that the board and commission positions that I get to appoint are filled with urban native folks from the community. I’ve been a part of this community for 20 years and that's who I'll be thinking of when I get to make decisions. The issues of affordability for native people in this city are huge for me, I want native people here to have great paying jobs, to own their own homes, and for the public school system to be working for them. The other thing on my agenda is infant mortality. I am horrified by the high rates of infant mortality in Seattle and that will be a primary focus of an Echohawk administration. It’s something that fuels me and motivates me and makes me want to get into that Mayor’s office and change the trajectory of what it means to be a native family in this city. I am so excited about having the opportunity to champion these issues.
What would be your number one priority if elected as Mayor?
I'm going to invite the Squamish and Muckleshoot tribes to have a government-to-government relationship with the city of Seattle. And I would ask them to bring in their community to pray, to sing, and hold ceremony right there in City Hall and reclaim it as a Coast Salish place. I honor all of the Coast Salish tribes, Tulalip, the Duwamish, and they all have their place here. However, right now the City of Seattle has a government-to-government relationship with the Squamish and Muckleshoot. I would want to be inviting all of the tribal and urban Native communities into City Hall and reclaim it for Native people and make sure wheels are starting off the right way. I would ask all our department heads to be there, I can’t require them but I would warmly invite them to be there and participate. This is a Coast Salish city, we should be practicing Coast Salish tradition, that should be the norm.
How are you keeping yourself grounded during election season? When you have the free moment, what do you do to unwind?
Sharice Davids, Congresswomen from Kansas, is someone I’ve known for a really, really long time. We became friends, like, I don't know, 10 years ago at I think a seventh-generation conference. It was just a miraculous day when she won her race for Congress, I screamed and cried and all that. So when she found out that I was running she gave me a call and we had a long conversation and she said ‘listen my number one piece of advice to you about running for office is to take a nap whenever you can.’ And I’ve been taking that seriously! It’s a lot of emotional work that's happening when you’re running, there's a lot of learning. I was an expert on homelessness and housing and equity and those issues but now I'm having to become an expert on climate justice, transportation, and education policy. I’m now constantly learning, learning, learning, and that can get fatiguing so when I have like 30 minutes, I hear her voice and say okay, it’s time to take a nap.
I’m also centering myself on the continued recognition that it's hard to really have to put yourself out there and that even though we're doing super well, there's a possibility that we could not win. But that’s just the reality, you have to be courageous and just step out there. So, I try to reflect a lot on that, that this was the right thing to do. I care about my relatives experiencing homelessness and I think I have a chance to helps so I must do this. I think about all those faces that I know, people that I love that are sleeping outside tonight, and remember this is why I’m running.