“Only take what you are willing to give back.”

The Puyallup Water Warriors.


This article has taught me one truth. Our youth are amazing. The Indigenous youth I have spoken to are resilient, they are the definition of strength, and they have become the beacon of hope in our fight to protect our finite resources here on Mother Earth. 

For our non-Indigenous readers, I want to remind you of the obstacles Indigenous youth have had to overcome. Born into a dominant society of colonialism that for the last 500 plus years has worked to erase the traditions, language, and family systems that define and nurture us. It is not always easy to stand proud in your Indigenous truth. Our youth have done so much more than stand up for us. The youth have become a testament of our strength as Indigenous people. 

If you think of all the noise surrounding our kids, it can feel hopeless. Despite everything our young warriors face, the youth continue to amaze me.  It is inspiring that we have so many youths standing up to represent their nations and to fight for everyone’s right to a future that would include clean water and safe lands. 

In a day where the brutality of the rich is flaunted, glorified, and even envied, bullies are given power while suppressing those fighting to do what is right for our world. Abusing the sacred is normalized, even justified by political parties, corporate CEOs, and mainstream media outlets. After all, we live in a world where media services encourage, enlist, and enable false news to distract people. Too often mainstream media use glamorous headlines, drama filled tv channels and magazine gossip to numb those who don’t know and are unwilling to learn. In the background of all this noise are articles about current pollution problems, oil leaks that are pushed to the background and given little to no attention. Here are a few examples: Articles like these in local newspapers like the Lincoln County Leader, from the Oregonian, a local Oregon news outlet, and from NRDC.org are often buried and/ or overlooked by mainstream outlets. 

In those moments where all you read about are the atrocities against nature, there are moments of hope. The Puyallup Water Warriors made headlines when they took to the Salish Sea to stop a shipment of weapons that were believed to be slated to continue Israel’s genocidal onslaught against the Palestinian people. Surrounded by the Coast Guard with military grade weapons aimed at them, these youth held their ground. 

Warriors at such a young age are standing up to teach our colonized world how to do the right thing. It is my honor to introduce The Puyallup Water Warriors, Louis Fanfan Puyallup Tribal Citizen, Dillon Woodard Puyallup Tribal Citizen, Homero Lenus Puyallup Tribal Citizen, Pedro Sanchez Puyallup Tribal Citizen, and Patricia Gonzalez Puyallup Tribal Citizen. These youth are with their mentor Dakota Case Puyallup Tribal Citizen.

Puyallup water warriors prepare to stop arms shipment to Israel.

In a world where too many are happy being hand fed their beliefs and point of view. It is refreshing to meet youth who thrive doing the right thing for the right reasons. When I asked The Water Warriors how to reach the short-term attention span of today’s colonized populations, they had an immediate answer. Trends. Trends make doing the right thing popular. They are right. Protecting the water only really began outside of indigenous communities and niche populations once it was given trendy slogans and titles. Slogans like “Stand with Standing Rock”, titles like “Water Protectors” are among the most popular. They are right, the world only cared when they could see and post about being part of the trend. Once it stopped being cool, the cameras and support left the Standing Rock Nation to clean up. The Standing Rock Nation continues to fight the DAPL atrocity on their own. There are still Water Protectors fighting charges from that trend. The momentum and the support faded as the mainstream colonized minds moved on to find the next trend. We just have to figure out how to make the trend last even after the glitz and glam fade. If we can figure out how to keep the colonized mind invested in the trend of saving our waters and our lands, we could save our planet.

Colonized vs. Indigenous 

The colonized mind is the imprisonment of self. The whole intent of this imposed mindset is to trap the self within walls of cannot and have to’s. These beliefs are imposed upon us by the dominant society that has proved itself detrimental to the indigenous and natural world since their introduction to our lands over 500 years ago. To obey with blind conformity is to be chiselled in absolutes without exception. This mindset is selfish and demanding, full of me, me, me and I, I, I’s. The desire for self-comfort without responsibility to community, or nature has led us into the current wilful destruction of our planet. This mindset is denying everyone the right to a future that includes clean water, unpolluted air, and land that is safe to house life.

As Indigenous people born into an oppressor’s dominant society, our Indigenous mind has to be flexible. Our children have had to learn to walk flawlessly between two worlds. In indigenous settings you are usually assigned roles and responsibilities that encompass the good of all life, always. Every time we as indigenous people step outside; we carry the responsibility of representation. We are forced to represent not just ourselves, but our families, our communities, and our nations. We decide not on what is best for one’s selfish pleasure or desire, but what is best for all our relations. We must always remain conscious of how our decisions now will affect everyone tomorrow.

These are the two worlds our youth are forced to walk between. The next youth I am introducing you to, walks between the indigenous and colonized worlds with grace and dignity. It is with great admiration that I introduce Ayana Sabbas, of the Nuuchahnulth, Shoshone, Gros Ventre, and Navajo Nations. Ayana has worked and studied both in the University of Washington and at the side of tribal elders and specialists. She is an expert on how to combine the contrasting worlds of western science and indigenous knowledge to better the outcome of our future for everyone.

Ayana Sabbas

“Community based knowledge is so important moving forward, for the long term. Before westernized science would come to indigenous communities to take and interpret that knowledge (not always correctly) and leave. This often led to incorrect or insufficient data. Whereas now western science is finally beginning to recognize the benefit of long-term engagement from and by indigenous communities. The relationships we have with the land span thousands and thousands of years” Ayana Sabbas.

The youth I spoke to believe in a future where our two worlds can work together to give a broader and more comprehensive solution for real change in the climate crisis. They speak of a future where we can teach and learn together. Our Indigenous youth stepping up to fight against climate atrocities remain ready to learn from us while also teaching us. 

As much as they offer hope, we have to remember the very real consequences if we don’t change things now. The Water Warriors, “I think it is important for future generations to experience like we did, to learn like we did. If we just keep polluting the water like we are, we won’t let the future generations have what we had. There are animals going extinct and if we keep going like that it won’t be there for tomorrow. Water is everything.

We need to fix it for sure. The air quality in Tacoma gets worse every year. The waters are turning bad due to pollution, the grass is becoming yellow, and our salmon and shellfish are becoming smaller, way smaller as compared to 100 years ago. Our resources are becoming more limited. Look at Ruston, a community where they built over the pollution, moving people onto a toxic waste dump. It may look nice, but the toxic waste is still there, the waters are still not safe. Out of sight, out of mind until it shows up again in the near future. They merely buried and put a cap on the toxic waste, but it is most definitely still there and will resurface in some way. I have often thought in 25, 50 years will there be higher rates of disease? Will it spread to wildlife from the plants growing from those soils? You cannot hide something so devastating forever.” Water Warriors

Ruston is a band aid, a beautiful band aid, but only a temporary covering, the infection is still there. Even if we cannot see it, the poison is there. It will and probably has affected us already. The waters our fish and shellfish live in are polluted, when we feed our families and ourselves that fish that swam in polluted waters, they in turn pollute us. We are all connected, we cannot escape, cover up, or erase these man-made devastations. The only thing to do now is fight for a better future, a future where we heal the earth, protect the sacred, and reverse the damage we can. A future we can be proud to give to our children.

“The first steps in combating the current climate crisis should be to address the horrors and traumas done to the land that we are on. We have to come together to heal the earth. It will look like doom and gloom if you are isolating yourself in a lab only looking at quantitative data. That is why scientists (non-native) need to bring in the indigenous communities and work together to see a brighter and better future for everyone.” Ayana Sabbas.

“Keeping the water clean is our priority. We use the water to drink, we use it to clean, there is a lot of ocean life, river life we depend on to nourish our loved ones. Pollution is poisoning us; it’s killing us slowly. If you look at half the products you get that say natural, but when you look at their ingredient list there are all these chemicals listed, why is that if it is fresh food?” Water Warriors. 

These businesses don’t care about us, they just care about their money. Money over life, seems to be the business trend sustaining the corporation’s fat cats who prey upon the people. For real change, we need to flip the script. 

We cannot reach the masses by just informing them, we have to lead the people, and our youth are starting the needed trends. We have to support them. Trends can be fiercely followed but seem to be only temporary. To keep stealing and polluting the people, billion-dollar industries like fossil fuel corporations pour millions of dollars into political parties, media outlets and our school systems. They do this to keep people distracted with fun instantly gratifying trends. The Water Warriors suggest getting people to fight for clean water. We need to start lasting trends. They have a point. 

Look at Dawn dish soap. Their trend has been going since the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill. They still use the fame gained from washing away oil from wildlife today in their commercials and with the baby ducks on their bottles. This subtle media campaign trend hints to the ongoing crisis as they are still using Dawn dish soap today to clean animals affected by oil leaks and spills. The fact that Dawn dish soap is still needed and used today to clean wildlife that would otherwise die drenched in crude oil is a testament to the ongoing crisis. We live in a current society where wildlife needing to be cleaned after oil spills is an everyday reality. Dawn advertises and embraces (as they should) their dish soap’s effective and gentle cleaning tactics for wildlife impacted by oil spills as a media campaign.

The abuse is everywhere, the cost to life is substantial. We have to step up and stand with our youth to protect our finite resources for all our relations. We have to engage the world now to choose the right path before there are no paths left for us to give our future generations. If that means getting on social media, writing stories, making a dance, fine. Let us just do anything and everything now so we have a later. 

I challenge us older generations to step up. Be there for our youth so they have the strength and support they need to make our world better. Every action is important, do what you can when and as you can. If we all do a little bit, it will add up, I believe eventually our actions will become enough to tip the scales in this climate war. Maybe the reaction to our actions can save our world.

These youth give me hope where there have been few events to inspire. They give so much of themselves every day and ask for so little in return. This article has left me with the knowledge that tomorrow is full of leaders ready and willing to fight for our future. I for one vow to support our youth as they lead the way to a better future. I hope all of the other aunties, uncles, moms, dads, grandparents, and allies will join me in uplifting our youth fighting for real change today.

By Rae Rose

Rae Rose is a Pacific Northwest author of Paiute, Mayan, and Japanese heritage. She writes historical fiction, poetry, picture books. “Stories are very important to me, I hope you enjoy these stories I share with you.” You can follow her @raerosenwbooks