Gov. Bob Ferguson signed an executive order Wednesday to strengthen how the state consults and works with Native American tribes in Washington.
It calls for drafting new policies for tribal consultation and requires expanded training for state workers on sovereignty and other issues related to understanding the unique nature of the ties between the state and tribal governments.
Tribal leaders applauded the move, but also flagged ongoing tensions in the relationship.
In addition, the Governor’s Office of Indian Affairs will get a permanent seat in Ferguson’s executive cabinet and expanded authority and responsibility to carry out the order’s directives.
“I’ve heard from Tribal leaders about how we can improve our partnership with Tribal governments,” Ferguson said in a statement. “I’m putting that feedback into action and laying out my vision for fostering meaningful government-to-government relationships.”
Ferguson signed the six-page order to kick off Wednesday’s session of the 2025 Centennial Accords meeting hosted by the Cowlitz Indian Tribe in southwest Washington. This was Ferguson’s first time attending as governor.
The Centennial Accord, a 1989 agreement signed by then Washington Governor Booth Gardner and leaders of federally recognized tribes, is a framework for relations between the state and tribal governments. Representatives gather each year to take stock of how the relationship is evolving. Historically open to the media, this year’s event was closed to the press.
Washington has several laws concerning interactions with tribes. Agencies must have a tribal liaison, for example. And there are already training mandates for employees.
In Wednesday’s meeting, tribal leaders said the executive order provides the heft needed to improve relations in a material way.
“It means a lot to Indian Country,” said Cindy Marchand, secretary of the Colville Confederated Tribes.
Kadi Bizyayeva, vice-chair of the Stillaguamish Tribe, told Ferguson the order “definitely demonstrates that you’re being perceptive of tribal concerns. I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue forging ahead and building relationships together with the state.”
Cowlitz Indian Tribe Chairman Bill Iyall, reached during the lunch break, said the provisions will solidify the executive branch’s commitment to consultation.
“In the past, it was mostly checking a box. This is a new mandate for early communication and regular communication,” he said.
erguson, in the meeting, said the order is a step toward ensuring sovereignty is respected and encouraged tribal leaders to reach out when it’s not working.
“For those of you who know me, you know, I don’t mind direct conversations,” he said. “I don’t take things personally if you’ve got a challenge with what’s going on with the state or a decision I’m making. Direct and candid. That’s how we move forward.”
Loni Greninger, vice chair of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, did so a few minutes later.
“Why is it so hard for the state to uphold trust and treaty obligations and other obligations that are described outside of treaties?” she said. “I want to ask this challenging question, to be transparent and to be direct, but also in a sense of how we figure this out together.”
She theorized it was because state laws get passed without taking those agreements into account. Those statutes become a barrier to finding a remedy, she surmised.
In response, Ferguson spoke more generally on how changing the culture of government is hard. The training envisioned in the executive order should expand knowledge of employees and lead to lasting change, he said.
Teri Gobin, chair of the Tulalip Tribes, flagged the importance of the training, noting that sometimes what is discussed with agency leaders is not passed down to the staff. “So thank you for moving ahead in this way and listening to our concern,” she said.
Another element of the executive order calls for protecting sensitive information, described as Indigenous Knowledge, exchanged in the course of government-to-government discussions. Tribes want to prevent information, such as locations of cultural resources, from being divulged.
“We’ve been victimized,” Iyall said, referring to when people disturb cultural sites or objects.
The Office of Indian Affairs must deliver a report to Ferguson by next October with recommendations for improvements to existing policies or practices.
The Centennial Accord meetings will continue Thursday with discussions on natural resources, education, state budget, tribal economies and health care.
911 calls triple after overnight only shelter opens in North Portland; neighbors despair
Lillian Mongeau Hughes / oregonlive.com (TNS)
In the first nine months of last year, 203 calls were made to 911 from the blocks surrounding a Williams Street property owned by The Salvation Army, according to city records.
On Jan. 7, Portland and The Salvation Army opened an overnight-only shelter, named the Moore Street Shelter, at that property. Over the following nine months, 627 calls were made to 911 from the blocks surrounding the shelter, more than triple the number made during the same time period the previous year.
Calls specifically for police help more than doubled – from 143 in 2024 to 359 in 2025. And “unwanted person” calls spiked from six in 2024 to 99 in 2025.
The vast majority – 90% – of the additional calls came from somebody at the shelter itself, including 16 calls about an assault, threat or possible weapon. It was unclear in the 911 records obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive whether calls were made by shelter staff or guests. Several former Moore Street staffers who have spoken to the newspaper about conditions there have said that employees called 911 frequently.
Most of the remaining additional calls appear to have been made by neighbors, according to a review of the addresses associated with those calls.
Lucy Wilson, 76, grew up in the family house she now owns that is directly adjacent to The Salvation Army property. Her grandmother bought the place in 1921, she said. The neighborhood has seen its share of hard times, Wilson said, especially in the 1960s when she was a teenager. But Wilson said she has never had so many reasons – intimidation, vandalism, drug use – to call police.
“I know the homeless have to have facilities and I’ve had some nice conversations,” said Wilson, who is a retired social worker. “But I no longer feel safe to come outside to work on my lawn.”
Wilson said she’d been screamed at, had a window smashed and even had a man move into the freestanding garage at the back of her property.
Seven neighbors who spoke to The Oregonian/OregonLive either in person or in response to a reporter’s business card left on their doorframe said they had made one to five calls to 911 in 2025. Like Wilson, most said that was more than they’d ever made before. An eighth homeowner in the neighborhood said she hadn’t made any calls because she now rents her property and lives elsewhere. Several people who spoke to the newspaper said they were considering selling their homes and moving to another neighborhood.
Carrie Henderson, 47, has been one of the most vocal North Portland residents speaking out against what she sees as an abandonment of her neighborhood despite promises from the city and the mayor to do better. Henderson was interviewed by KGW, has spoken at City Council meetings and has been a frequent correspondent with city staff, according to her email records.
After early emails to the city about people engaging in public drug use, urination and sleeping on the sidewalk, Henderson said Wilson himself called her and her husband back.
“We were shocked,” Henderson said. “(Wilson) wanted to assure us we were going to be in an advanced enforcement zone. He (said he) wants to improve livability in the neighborhood where he opens this shelter. The exact opposite has happened.”
Asked Wednesday how he would respond to complaints like Henderson’s, Wilson said it was the first he’d heard about the increase in 911 calls and that he and his staff would look into it.
“If there is a need, we’re going to address that need,” he said of the increase in 911 calls.
Wilson said he stood by his commitment to Henderson to make the neighborhood safer overall.
“I do drive-bys often,” Wilson said. “I go by all of our shelters to review. I don’t see people living and sleeping in doorways in the community anymore. So I think my view on the ground is (that) it has improved.”
Henderson, who has lived in the neighborhood for 13 years, said she never knows what she’s going to see now when she opens her blinds in the morning. She said she has called 911 about people she’s worried may have died on the sidewalk, about people physically intimidating her and about open air drug use. She said the police have never shown up in a timely manner.
“We just feel helpless,” Henderson said. “The city is not providing us with any resources.”
The Portland Police Bureau has not fulfilled a request for public records connected to police responses to crimes documented in the area during the first six months after the shelter opened. The records were first requested on Sept. 8. On Oct. 9, a public records officer with the police bureau wrote that the “request is still being processed.”
Previous reporting by The Oregonian/OregonLive showed that the city had not been closely monitoring shelter operations at Moore Street during its first six months of operation. For example, The Salvation Army failed to provide its largely temporary staff with sufficient health and safety training in those months. City officials said ensuring training requirements were met and cleaning procedures existed were the responsibility of the shelter operators they contract with, not the city itself.
The significant increase in 911 calls in the blocks surrounding the Moore Street Shelter runs counter to crime data the city reported in July showing that crime had stayed mostly flat in the blocks surrounding the Moore Street Shelter in the months after it opened. Some neighbors suspect this is because police are not recording incidents reported to 911 operators as crimes.
The Portland Police Bureau did not respond to a request to address this criticism or other concerns raised by Moore Street Shelter neighbors.
Assistant Pastor Gordon Young has been a member of the Bethesda Christian Church, down the street from the Moore Street Shelter, since the early 1990s. Young said he had never seen as much vandalism, drug dealing and defecation on the neighborhood’s sidewalks and on church property as he has seen since the shelter opened in January. And much of it, he said, doesn’t seem to matter to police.
He said he’s called the city to report drug activity, including dealing and open air use, as well as broken glass and feces left on church property. Young’s assistant pastor duties at the historically Black, Pentecostal church include maintaining the property.
“I’m told it’s not city property,” Young said. And he said his offers to share video evidence of what occurred on church grounds have gone unheeded. “We’ve got eight cameras around church property. [Police are] like, ‘We don’t need it.’”
Young said the city should take more responsibility for the situation the new shelter has created.
“You’re bringing these people here,” he said he’d like to tell the city. “And you haven’t even said, ‘Is there something we can do differently?’ It’s normally us taking a picture and sending it to them. It’s not them saying, ‘How can we help you to make the program a better fit for the community?’”
The neighborhood is also part of the 1,000-foot radius “engagement zone” created by the city around each new neighborhood shelter. The zones get extra street cleaning, priority tent removal and daily walk-throughs by city outreach teams, according to city officials.
Wilson, Henderson, Young and other neighbors reported that while much of this did happen, they felt it was not sufficient to address the plethora of issues that have become common in their neighborhood.
In September, Young’s church security cameras caught a couple engaging in a lewd act on the steps from the sidewalk onto church property. Security footage reviewed by The Oregonian/OregonLive shows a man and woman hanging out on the steps around 5 p.m. on the evening of Sept. 25.
At about 5:15, they engage in oral sex for what feels like a very uncomfortable amount of time to watch such a thing in the presence of a pastor. About 15 minutes later, the woman appears to pass out and a fire truck comes into view. Emergency responders revive the woman from an apparent overdose and load her onto a stretcher.
Young said he looked back at the footage only after Wilson, who lives across the street from the church, told him about the ambulance shortly after it left. He called the police non-emergency line to file a report that evening. He said he had not seen a response as of Wednesday.
If you have a tip regarding conditions in or around any Portland homeless shelter, please email lmhughes@oregonian.com.
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