Form 990-EZ for tax year 2022

Totals

Total revenue

$149,041

Total expenses

$160,279

Contributions and grants received

$149,041

Grants paid

$9,938

Program service revenue

— not reported

Membership dues (line 3)

— not reported

Investment income (line 4)

— not reported

Gain or loss on sale of assets (line 5c)

— not reported

Gaming and fundraising events, net (line 6d)

— not reported

Gross profit on inventory sales (line 7c)

— not reported

Other revenue (line 8)

— not reported

Total assets, end of year

$100,326

Total liabilities, end of year

$0

Net assets or fund balances, end of year

$100,326

Program service expenses (Part III)

$134,759

Program services were 84.1% of total expenses calculated — Part III's total program service expenses over total expenses, both as filed.

Mission and programs · 2022

• Film and Media coverage of our projects and issues: in the past 12 months, our own was article published in Grist Magazine, and other journalists have featured our involvement with Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut for Morning in America (tv); Vice News; Atmos Earth; The Guardian; King 5 news (tv); Channel 10 ABC aliate in Miami; the Bellingham Herald; and Seattle Met magazine. These are features; our eorts have been mentioned in countless other papers and shows. Additionally, we are working with the PBS series Native America (season 2) for an episode on Lummi eorts to protect salmon and the Salish Sea, focusing on ancestral reef net technology, a fishing method still practiced on Lummi Island. There are a number of film projects who are in correspondence with us, and one in active production (closing in on post- production). Resident Orca is a feature-length documentary film produced by Everyday Films and Urban Jungle Film; we are working with them exclusively to tell the story of Squil- le-he-le and Tah-Mahs's connection to and work for Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut.

  Expenses $21,000

• The Campaign to Bring Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut Home has seen dramatic changes in the past 12 months. The USDA finally inspected Miami Seaquarium and found it wanting in many ways. This report was made public. Our supporters amplified our call for an independent health assessment, as did the Mayor of Miami Dade County and the County Commission. Palace Entertainment sold the Miami Seaquarium to The Dolphin Company, who has been open to meaningful conversation with us. The executive producer of Resident Orca reached out to philanthropist Pritam Singh, who then founded Friends of Lolita, a non-profit committed to Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut's best possible quality of life. Raynell sits on the board of FOL, as does Charles Vinick from our partner Whale Sanctuary Project. Friends of Lolita has successfully negotiated ongoing independent health assessments for Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut. The comprehensive Operational Plan that we commissioned from Whale Sanctuary Project was completed, and a site search for Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut's Xwlemi Tokw (Lummi Home) seapen in the Salish Sea was started. We set up a GoFundMe to finance the search and securing of a site, as well as provide for ongoing negotiations with Seaquarium and advocacy for Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut. We held a water ceremony with a powerful Lummi ceremonialist which was well-attended in-person and online, and was also covered by King 5 news and other outlets. In July, at the invitation of The Dolphin Company, Raynell travelled with a traditional Lummi healer to hold ceremony with Sk'aliCh'elh-tebaut at her tank. This is unprecedented and important healing work. It was also good to strengthen bonds with The Dolphin Company. We have invited the CEO and key personal of The Dolphin Company along with Pritam Singh and Friends of Lolita to a cultural visit to Lummi; we are hoping that this gathering happens this coming Fall. Sk'aliCh'elht-tenaut is still receiving from a chronic infection, but she is now, because of all the changes stated above, receiving excellent care. We are optimistic that she will recover enough so that we can then start talking about her future and possible homecoming. At every step of conversation and planning, Lhaq'temish values, culture, and spirit are present.

  Expenses $66,705 · Grants $9,938

• Podcast: it has been a steep learning curve in how to produce, record, and edit a podcast! We now have those skills and an outline for a first season. Jim Gates, senior podcast producer at NPR Seattle aliate KUOW was very helpful in mentoring us in 2021. We will send a rough draft of the first season to him for further input, and, potentially, co-production. Jared Tate, an acclaimed classical Chickasaw composer, agreed to compose original theme music for us. We recorded an interview with Lummi artist/writer Chenoa Egawa and have a rough cut of our first episode, "The People under the Waves," which focuses on Indigenous connection to whales. Other outlined episodes are about Treaty rights, salmon, reef netting, and Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut.

  Expenses $12,300

• We are indigenizing the framework. This eort represents an unusual and powerful coalition of governmental entities, elected ocials, private corporations, non-profit organizations, individual activists and philanthropists all supporting an Indigenous claim.Advocacy: in 2021 we were in correspondence with Suzan del Bene about her proposed ORCA act, which unfortunately did not go to the floor. However, a very similar proposition, the SWIMS Act, which forbids the capture, breeding, and/or public display of cetaceans, has been introduced as legislation. We have submitted testimony and/or letters of support for the Salmon/Orca Summit hosted by Aliated Tribes of Northwest Indians; Roberts Bank Terminal 2 (ocial comment letter); the Lower Snake River Dams Draft report (we support breaching immediately).Rights of Nature: we were awarded a grant from the Na'ah Illahee Fund to participate in a cohort of other Indigenous groups working with the principles of the rights of nature. In particulate, we are interested in drafting Resolutions that would recognize the personhood of Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut, and plan to present this Resolutions to the Aliated Tribes of Northwest Indians and the National Congress of American Indians. The hope is that these Resolutions would help mainstream the idea of Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut's personhood, and from there the idea of killer whale personhood could also develop.Education: We are working with the Mountaineers to produce articles and blog posts about land acknowledgments, Treaty rights, place names, and the like. We have appeared at symposia including those hosted by the University of Washington Botanic Gardens ("Ecological Restoration and the YMCA Earth Service Corps.Tribal: we have prepared comprehensive presentations on the importance of our work to the Lummi people for the Lummi Indian Business Council, the Cultural Commission, and the Lummi Natural Resources and Fisheries Commission.Community: events include the afore-mentioned Water Ceremony at Xwe'chi'eXen and the upcoming Lummi on Lummi Island event, which will bring Lummi artists and non-profit organizations to join with Island artists and non-profit organizations for a day that will be about #LandBack, working together, reefnetting, Salish Sea and community healing. The day will conclude with a community blessing for a new totem pole to be held at the ancestral village site on Legoe Bay on Lummi Island.The Lummi Fishermen's Memorial will be a life-size bronze sculpture of a traditional Lhaq'temish woman dressed in a cedar cape and cedar hat. She will stand by the shore at Gooseberry Point, facing the setting sun, with her hands raised in thanks. She will watch over the fishermen going out to sea. Around the marble base on which she stands will be bronze memorial plaques on which the names of Lummi fishermen lost at sea will be inscribed.Each year, there will be a ceremony at this site, at the northwest corner of Fisherman's Cove at Gooseberry Point. Each year, the fleet will be blessed, and the names of all fishermen lost in the previous year will be read aloud.This Lummi Fishermen's Memorial is the vision of Sacred Lands Conservancy President Ellie Kinley. For the past six years, she has been raising money by serving salmon dinners at SeaFeast, the annual festival of the sea and seafood held in Bellingham. Ellie is one of the founders of SeaFeast.So far, Ellie has raised about $26,000. The original budget of $80,000 may well be revised upward as artists are consulted.We will be writing grants for this project, as well as continuing to sell salmon dinners at SeaFeast. The timeline of the project is yet to be determined, and will be informed by both financial readiness and artist selection. We will soon be in discussion with people who worked on the Bellingham Fishermen's Memorial and people in the bronze sculpture business.

  Expenses $34,754

As filed on the 2022 return. The filer continues this part on Schedule O, which is not shown here.

Listed in Part IV

Compensation is as filed in Part IV of the Form 990-EZ: compensation, contributions to benefit plans, expense account, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total.

Grants on this return

No itemized grants to organizations on this return.

Provenance

Return type

form_990_ez

Tax year

2022

Filed

13 November 2023

IRS schema version

2022v5.0

Source object

202313179349202856

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