As blue sky peeked through the clouds of an overcast Northwest morning, a group of mostly indigenous people gathered near the Lakeway Inn Best Western in Bellingham, Washington. Drumming and singing pulsed as those present held signs reading, “Honor the Treaties” and “We are All the People.” Event organizers, Idle No More Bellingham, had called community members together to protest two organizations “who are holding a conference to discuss opposition to the existence of tribes as separate and sovereign entities.”[1]

Inside a Lakeway Inn conference room, about fifty people were gathered to hear a lineup of speakers assail the very ideas of tribal sovereignty and treaty rights – of tribal nationhood. The anti-Indian movement had come to town. The concerns of Idle No More Bellingham were entirely justified.

The Bellingham conference was sponsored by the Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA) and Citizens Equal Rights Foundation (CERF), one of a series of events being hosted around the country by these closely-linked national anti-Indian groups. CERA/CERF held previous meetings in New York and Massachusetts; others are slated for late April in the Midwest and June in Northern California. CERA/CERF organized these forums after canceling their regular annual Washington D.C. conference.

These two groups’ cross-country drive comes as One Nation United (ONU) – the other major national anti-Indian group - appears in decline. Despite building relations with former Washington State Attorney General (and losing 2012 gubernatorial candidate) Rob McKenna in 2007, ONU took down its webpage and quit responding to email inquiries in the last year.[2] CERA/CERF’s conferences appear aimed at boosting ties with local activists and asserting itself as “the” national anti-Indian umbrella. The meeting ended with CERA/CERF committing to help revive anti-tribal activism in Washington State.