What is a Chief? How Native Values Can Teach Resilience

🪶 Fort Steilacoom Museum Annual Meeting & Guest Speaker: John Halliday 🪶

We’re honored to welcome John Halliday, a Muckleshoot Tribal member of Duwamish ancestry, as our featured speaker at our 2025 annual meeting.

Halliday became legally blind at age 55. Halliday says his Native worldview, cultural traditions, and values have helped him face the challenges of losing his sight. These traditions have sustained Native peoples for generations — long before colonization.

Too often, the understanding of American history begins with foreign European powers “settling” the land — as though no thriving human communities existed here. Woven in with Halliday’s personal story, the audience will learn Washington State history from a Native American perspective, and how that history can teach resilience.

You can learn much more about his remarkable story here: https://www.humanities.org/spark/john-halliday-chief/

This talk is generously supported by Humanities Washington, with marketing support from the City of Lakewood’s lodging tax fund.

Note: The evening will begin with a short 10-minute business meeting of the Historic Fort Steilacoom Association before the presentation.

Also check out other Meetups in Steilacoom.