Lorraine Loomis passing mourned throughout Pacific Northwest

A time came when Lorraine Loomis figured there was a better way to earn a living than toiling at double shifts as a fish processor.

She was right. There was a better way. It just wasn’t easier.

If anything, becoming a long tenured “salmon warrior” was much harder – but a career that Loomis embraced and now provides a legacy destined to have an impact for generations to come, due to her diligence and perseverance.

The longtime director of the Swinomish Tribal Community Fisheries program, who rose to chair the Northwest Indian Fish Commission, died Aug. 10 at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where she had been admitted after having suffered a fall.

Loomis, the daughter of iconic Swinomish leaders Laura and Tandy Wilbur, Sr., had just recently celebrated her 81st birthday.

A champion of salmon habitat preservation and restoration as well as tribal treaty fishing rights, Loomis, who attended both La Conner High School and Skagit Valley College, was widely recognized as a strong matriarch and powerful leader possessed of a gentle soul.

Among the many condolences shared with her family last week were tributes from Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who was selected as an honorary pallbearer for her funeral services last Saturday; the state’s two U.S. Senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell; and State Rep. Debra Lekanoff, the lone Native American lawmaker in the Washington legislature.

Those who knew her best lauded Loomis for having been a humble, yet fierce advocate on behalf of salmon, what Seattle Times environment reporter Lynda Mapes calls the Pacific Northwest’s “signature species.”

Her involvement in what came to be known as “fish politics” was more a passion than mere career change, one facilitated by the 1974 decision by U.S. District Court Judge George Boldt that upheld tribes’ treaty fishing rights. The very next year she became the Swinomish Tribe’s fisheries manager.

Loomis worked hard – very hard, in fact – at fisheries management, but was also a natural when it came to the dual arts of negotiation and effective leadership, according to those who worked alongside her.

“Her presence in a room was larger than life,” former Swinomish Tribal Senate Chairman Brian Cladoosby said of Loomis, alluding to the dignified grace that was her trademark.

“She was one of the greatest woman warriors ever from the Pacific Northwest,” Cladoosby said. “She never wavered in her fight for our treaty rights.

Right to the very end, Lorraine was advocating for her tribe at an intertribal fisheries meeting at Upper Skagit.”

Current Swinomish Tribal Senate Chairman Steve Edwards, among a host of Northwest Native American leaders to praise Loomis’ achievements, noted her role locally as a “revered matriarch.”

She served on the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission with the legendary Billy Frank, Jr., then succeeded him as the panel’s presiding officer upon his death seven years ago.

“Just like Billy,” noted Cladoosby, “it will be hard, if ever, for someone to fill her shoes.”

Justin Parker, the NWIFC executive director, likewise acknowledged Loomis’ remarkable four decades-plus in fisheries management, saluting her for having “dedicated her life to defending tribal treaty rights.”

It came as little surprise, then, that Loomis was the 2020 recipient of the Billy Frank, Jr. Leadership Award, a presentation made last October.

Her tireless devotion was admired not only by Loomis’ contemporaries, but also established a benchmark for succeeding waves of Native women leaders, tribal officials said.

“She elevated the traditional role of women in leadership and brought many of our young women leaders along with her,” said Lawrence Solomon, chairman of the Lummi Indian Business Council.

Among her major achievements was leading the salmon fisheries planning process for tribes in co-management with the state, participation in the development and implementation of the U.S.-Canada Pacific Salmon Treaty and serving on the Fraser River Panel that manages sockeye and pink salmon.

Former Seattle Times reporter Mark Yuasa, now a free-lance correspondent who wrote a feature article on Loomis four years ago, described her then as “someone who loves and breathes everything fishing.”

Loomis agreed, telling Yuasa that “fishing has always been part of my family culture.”

Her profile expanded as Loomis attended fisheries management conferences and summits both near and far and as she inherited from Frank the task of penning a monthly column carried by publications throughout Indian Country.

“If only we had an estimate of how many miles she traveled since becoming fisheries manager for the Swinomish Tribe,” Cladoosby said.

In addition, Loomis served three five-year terms on the Swinomish Senate, a period spanning from 1985 to 2000.

Her long commitment to public service built an impressive work history. But Loomis wasn’t one to rest on her laurels. She didn’t take time to look in the rearview mirror, or even to live in the moment.

“None of us tribal natural resources managers are working for today,” her great-niece, the famed photographer and podcaster Matika Wilbur quoted Loomis as having said. “We are all working for tomorrow. We are working to make certain there will be salmon for the next seven generations.”

And, by all accounts, Loomis did her part – and more – to improve the odds of that happening.