Locals can help begin to make amends by paying a symbolic and voluntary rent.
They have never been fairly compensated for giving up their land, a sacrifice that all Seattleites now benefit from. Its pitch is irresistibly simple: The Duwamish are the rightful descendants of the original people of Seattle. More than 22,000 donors have contributed to it, and local organizations have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help Duwamish Tribal Services acquire land. It’s hard to overstate how revolutionary the nonprofit campaign has been. So like many Seattle lefties probably did that day, we passed a basket around to collect donations for Real Rent Duwamish. But we also wanted to feel like good people who cared about not harming others. We wanted to eat scalloped potatoes and catch up on a year’s worth of everyone’s gossip. But we wanted what everyone wants-to do the right thing, and for it to be easy. We knew that celebrating Thanksgiving was capital P problematic.
