The Coast Salish people of the Lummi, Swinomish and Upper Skagit communities enjoy an abundance of natural beauty within their homeland. They are realizing a beautiful emergence of their Native languages and culture. The younger generations are rapidly becoming a well-educated workforce. In their eyes, the Salish Tribal people are taking their rightful place in the Pacific Northwest as a self-governing people.

Today, opioid addictions are having tragic effects in communities throughout the country. It is most tragic on Indian Reservations including Lummi, Swinomish and Upper Skagit. The opioid addictions mask the historical trauma that lives within each tribal community.

Tell the Truth, a PBS length documentary, looks at the fight against addictions in the Lummi, Swinomish and Upper Skagit tribal communities. Community leaders, traditional healers, counselors, physicians, community advocates, police officers, prosecutors and especially people successfully recovering from addictions are sought out to provide insights into communities overcoming addictions.

Along the way, we engage in conversations about: successful/failed collaborations amongst government and family, celebrations of those in recovery and the shifting paradigm away from the, “Drug War,” and into defining this crisis as a, “Public Health Crisis.”

Tell the Truth seeks to not place blame or highlight failure but to bring awareness, find the good and praise it, and share the strengths inherent to tribal communities which are: tight knit families, strong spiritual beliefs and a mission to, “Not Leave Anyone Behind.”