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Guest Writer
Theresa Sheldon; photo by Mel Ponder
Theresa Sheldon sits on the board of directors for the Tulalip Tribes and was also the former director of Policy and Advocacy for the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.
For her commitment to protecting the Tulalip Tribes’ sovereignty and her work to bring justice and healing to Native peoples nationwide, she is honored with a 2024 Indigenous Leadership Award.
The warnings for young Native people—suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence, teen pregnancy—are the aftermath of decades of government policies that severed Native people from their culture. As a teenager, these grim statistics fueled Theresa Sheldon’s anger and determination for change.
“That wasn’t going to be me. I was not going to be a negative statistic,” she said. “I’ve always felt that I was here for a purpose. I was born on July 4, and I say my birth was an act of resistance against colonization and assimilation. I’m here to do something different.”
“Something different” to Sheldon is based on her sense of justice, specifically, the harm caused by federal Indian policy and the intent to interrupt the powerful relationships within Indigenous communities and the established and honored tribal governance systems. When the Tulalip Indian Boarding School opened in 1857, tribal children were taken from their families, forbidden to speak their language, sing their songs, or be with their parents. This assimilation procedure continued for the next 75 years.
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It’s important to change the governing structure from injustice.
—THERESA SHELDON
“We were told that what we are is wrong, in every aspect. Holding governments accountable for causing pain is what drives me,” said Sheldon. “If it’s an act of Congress, if it’s changing the way our people have been impacted through policy and law, I’m going to do it. Wellness through government—it’s important to change the governing structure from injustice.”
For her service to improving tribal life, Theresa Sheldon is honored for her commitment to protecting the Tulalip Tribes’ sovereignty and her work to bring justice and healing to Native peoples nationwide.
For the past two years, Sheldon has served as Director of Policy & Advocacy for the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. When her tenure ended in 2024, she joined the Tulalip Tribes Board of Directors and currently serves as Secretary.
She began working for Tulalip when she was 14 in the Tulalip Summer Youth Program, worked full time after high school, and became a policy analyst when she was 26 years old. She has subsequently served in numerous roles, including two terms on the Tulalip Board of Directors (2013-18), committee chair for the National Congress of American Indians (2017-24), and board member for the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, Native Vote WA, and Native Americans in Philanthropy.
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I dream big. I’ve never had one path. I’ve zigzagged tremendously.
—THERESA SHELDON
She has a deep knowledge of national politics and served as the Native American Political Director for the Democratic National Committee (2019-22), Native American Director for the Biden-Harris Presidential Inaugural Committee in 2021, and at EMILY’s List, the largest pro-choice action committee dedicated to support women in political office. She created the first training for Native women seeking political office. Not surprisingly, she works constantly, she said.
“My small talk is about work,” she said. “The good part is I love my work, so it doesn’t always feel like work. I dream big. I’ve never had one path. I’ve zigzagged tremendously.”
At 10 years old, Sheldon was already accompanying her late mother, Toni Sheldon, a Tulalip citizen and Sisseston Wapeton Sioux, to community meetings. Theresa earned a degree from Western Washington University in Law and Diversity and, as a single mother, she raised and assisted in educating her son, Klayton, as a para educator, teaching him with traditional knowledge and through the processes of tribal governance. He graduated from high school this year and plans to attend Northwest Indian College after he travels abroad.
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The goal is to raise children who grow up with a sense of who they are, she said, an understanding that previous generations haven’t always had.
Teaching her son gave her a new appreciation on the value of learning “on the job.” He accompanied her to meetings and when she traveled for work both out of state and internationally.
“Education is our life as Native people,” she said. “When we are hunting and gathering and harvesting, it is math, science, biology. That’s how many of us learn, not at a desk.”
The Tulalip Tribes have established a strong governance system in the last 50 years, she said, the result of leadership that has focused on careful planning and a future that “takes care of seven generations, those children we’ll never meet.”
Even so, she said, that success “allows us to hide our emotional, mental, and physical disparities.” One of her goals as a member of the Board of Directors is to support building a trauma treatment center and wellness facility and an outdoor K-12 school that teaches Native language, culture, food, and identity. The goal is to raise children who grow up with a sense of who they are, she said, an understanding that previous generations haven’t always had.
“The strength and identity our young people have today is exactly what we want. It’s what we always hoped and prayed for. It’s beautiful to see. The future is training emotionally intelligent children — instead of healing to prevent problems. What would our community be if we were well? How would we be neighbors? What are our relationships to each other and what does that look like?”
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I truly believe we are the direct descendants of the killer whales. We are meant to do great things for the earth.
—THERESA SHELDON
Federal policies, she said, disconnected Native people from the spirit of who they are in every way possible.
“We are overcoming that. We have fought, and we have remained resilient through it,” she said. “I truly believe we are the direct descendants of the killer whales. We are meant to do great things for the earth.
“That power we carry within ourselves—that connection to the cedar trees, our stinging nettles, the salmon, the bodies of water—is so significant. We have a responsibility to Mother Earth. We have a responsibility to give back to our spirit and our land and who we are, a connection that we have is in the spirit.”
Theresa Sheldon’s acceptance speech at the 2024 Indigenous Leadership Awards. Video by Really BIG Video
Webpage
Wednesday October 16th, 2024 • 5:30pm
The Redd on Salmon Street | Portland, Oregon
The Indigenous Leadership Awards is a celebration of the determination, wisdom, and continuum of Indigenous leadership across the region.
Press release
Group of six leaders will be honored at a ceremony on October 16
Portland, Ore. – September 4, 2024 – Ecotrust is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2024 Indigenous Leadership Awards. …
