Setting Sun Institute

Where Science Meets Spirit

Our purpose at Setting Sun Institute (SSI) is to transform the intersections of social and environmental change through research and stories grounded in Indigenous wisdom. Through our commitment to indigenous values and forming strategic partnerships, SSI builds a network of advocates working toward inclusion of Indigenous perspectives in public life, leading to sustainable climate protection and authentic social justice.

Salmon, Climate, & Justice

Setting Sun Institute seeks to address the root causes of declining salmon populations in ways that will also address the most compelling and urgent issues of our time: climate change and social injustice. Yet at present, there is no research center designed to support tribal leaders as they engage with enormously complex policies, economics, and industries, making this important work more difficult.

Setting Sun Institute can be the solution. A think tank rooted in Salish wisdom can yield abundant benefits. It can house expertise on water policy and the energy industry that Indigenous-led movements can use to dismantle harmful development like river-wrecking dams and industrial-scale fossil fuel development. It can provide analysis to address thorny questions about tradeoffs between energy needs, economic development, conservation, and Tribal sovereignty. It can demonstrate the imperatives and benefits of restoring the natural world in a time of climate disruption. And perhaps most importantly, it can provide a space to grow the next generation of visionary Indigenous leaders who can provide meaningful answers to the challenges of injustice and climate disruption.

Ultimately, Setting Sun Institute’s work is designed to go deep. Restoring salmon means restoring the salmon people. And doing so will mean creating a new story for this place – one that prizes all the generations that will come after us.

Why now? And why a think tank?

Indigenous-led movements are notching major wins against dirty energy projects and river-destroying dams alike. They are poised for even greater success in the near future. Unprecedented numbers of Americans are demanding a new approach to racial justice while the threat of climate change becomes ever more pressing. And President Biden’s administration is listening: for the first time, a Native American is serving on the President’s cabinet, overseeing the lands and waters of the United States, and the President is advancing an array of climate protection measures.

Setting Sun Institute aims to take full advantage of these opportunities with a new strategy that will strengthen Indigenous movements in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

“The truth, well told” can speed progress toward change. That belief is at the heart of the country’s most successful regional think tank, Sightline Institute. Headquartered in Seattle and serving the broader Pacific Northwest, Sightline has notched nearly 30 years of wins, regularly germinating public policy and driving public discourse. Just so, the Ohio River Valley Institute, a think tank modeled on Sightline but adapted to the needs of Appalachia, launched in 2020 with similar successes: appearing in hundreds of news stories, shaping Congressional legislation, and beginning to de-throne the fossil fuel industry in order to make way for genuine economic development. Sightline and ORVI can serve as working models for a new institute focused on Indigenous-led policies and perspectives.

What we aim to achieve in 2024

The work of Setting Sun Institute is already underway, but much more is possible. Funding will support the team’s efforts to carefully design a suite of initiatives and programs and launch them in 2024. Our team is preparing to:

  • the foundational elements of the Institute with a core strategy; outlining programmatic structures and staff roles; and drawing a conceptual map of allies and audiences for outreach.

  • the Institute’s programmatic functions by specific research topics; creating an outreach plan to reach key audiences and allies; and writing a long-term fundraising plan.

  • the Institute by identifying staff or contractors to fill key roles; initiating research projects and other programs like Tribal Sovereignty; and conducting outreach to media, political officials, and allies.

While we build and launch Setting Sun Institute, we will continue work that began in 2022 and 2023. Using every opportunity available to us – whether in the New York Times, Seattle Times, CNN, or beyond -- we will center traditional Salish values: ancestors and ceremony, storytelling and sharing. At the same time, we will engage assertively with white-dominated institutions whether they are government agencies, health care organizations, energy companies, or media outlets. We will challenge the destructive history of development that imperils both native salmon and the global climate, and we will point the way toward practices that can sustain all people.

Setting Sun Institute will look like the Salish people

Our purpose is to lay a foundation for long-term, transformative change and collaboration that expands the horizon of what is possible in the salmon region. To accomplish this, Setting Sun Institute will do more than just produce high-impact research. It will find new ways to tell stories and apply the impactful stories already created through the SSI library database. By cataloging and sharing the Salmon People Project, a collection of stories by Children of the Setting Sun Productions, the institute will strategically center Indigenous voices across policy, activism, education, and environmental sectors.

Over time, the Institute will grow to support emerging new coalitions and collectives across Indian country. We see ourselves as a vital resource hub embedded in a diverse and resilient network of collaborators that will include leaders and activists, fishers and artists, storytellers and academics. Working with partners who recognize our shared interest in Indigenous rights, we can help transform the salmon region into a place that models sustainable climate protection and genuine social justice.