WASHINGTON, D.C. – On June 7, at a U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), made this statement about the passing of Tulalip tribal leader and former Washington state Senator John McCoy.
“And if I could just take a moment to recognize the passing of one of our tribal leaders, John McCoy from the Tulalip Reservation,” said Sen. Cantwell. “Not only was he a 20-year member of the United States Air Force and a tribal leader at Tulalip, but he served our state legislature both as a representative and a senator, and we will miss him dearly.”
Sen. Cantwell’s comments came moments before the committee passed S. 1723, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act, addressing an issue of personal importance to Sen. McCoy. Sen. McCoy’s father was fluent in the Tulalip Tribe’s language but refused to teach it, saying “they beat it out of me” at boarding school. In 2005, as a member of the state House of Representatives, he helped win passage of a bill that encourages school districts to teach Native history and culture and to consult Tribes in developing that curriculum. Sen. McCoy continued to work on the issue in the State Senate, and was instrumental in passage of 2015 legislation to expand what is today the innovative “Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State” curriculum.
The legislation passed out of committee today is consistent with Sen. McCoy’s view that “we must teach history – the good, the bad, the ugly – so that everybody understands how Indians were treated.”
Sen. McCoy served the State of Washington’s 38th district for nearly two decades — in the Washington House of Representatives from 2003-2013, and in the State Senate from 2013 until his retirement in 2020.
Original source can be found here.
