COEUR d’ALENE — On the 400-year anniversary of colonial settlement at Plymouth Rock and the beginning of the genocide of native peoples in North America, Paulette Jordan, Coeur d’Alene tribal member and candidate for the United States Senate, spoke to the packed community room of the Coeur d’Alene Public Library for the second annual “Day of Unity” event.

TOC Diversity Resource founder and director James McDay and secretary Christine Harding organized Saturday’s event, which highlights civil rights advocacy in North Idaho.

Organizers welcomed Jordan as keynote speaker and unveiled a charter establishing a chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Kootenai County. The chapter has 103 founding members.

TOC Diversity Resource aims to advance racial equity in Kootenai County through educational resources, but because of the organization’s nonprofit status, McDay knew another organization was needed in North Idaho.

“The NAACP was that other leg, the political action part of the advocacy equation,” McDay said. “I knew I couldn't carry out the execution of oversight related to violations of civil rights found while engaging the community as TOC. NAACP has the resources and a more complete and adequate educational database, filled with tools that directly address those issues of continued structural and systemic racial policies. Issues that adversely affect our community in employment, judicial and educational systems.”

The NAACP is the oldest and largest civil rights organization in America. It was formed in New York City in 1909 by white and black activists in response to ongoing violence against African Americans around the country. While chapters operate in Boise, Pocatello and Spokane, the NAACP has never had representation in North Idaho.

Its mission in the 21st century is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination.”

McDay was named chair of the Kootenai County NAACP unit by the tri-state conference president Jeanetta Williams. The official chair and officer elections will be held in November.

“We’re just trying to do our part to give back to the community,” McDay said.

Jordan thanked McDay for his work to bring racial equity to Idaho and launched into her speech, entitled, “Defending the West: Our People, Our Environment, Our Future.”

“Often times we have to be the ambassadors, we have to step up where others are being deconstructed of their dignity,” Jordan said. “In this case, for us as indigenous peoples, our environment, our water, our land has been deconstructed of its dignity.”

Jordan gestured to the lake, slack gray through the windows behind the audience, and called for action to restore it. She articulated that the destruction of the environment mirrors the violence brought against Native Americans and African Americans.

“I know that after today, James is 1,000 times more encouraged to continue doing what he’s doing,” Jordan said. “Imagine the many generations that he has impacted. Imagine all the children who look like him who will see that they belong here too. You are a part of that.”

Jordan paused to take in the audience of more than 100 people. She spends a lot of time on horseback and it is easy to see her horsemanship in her command of a room, in the way she communicates. The audience leaned in.

“It’s nice that we are all here, because we have to understand the past,” Jordan said. “We have to understand all the historical trauma because today, on this anniversary, we realize that we are still trying to overcome that within all of our peoples. We have a lot of work to do.”

Jordan’s speech echoed both a sermon and a yoga session, as she reminded the audience that the way they acted and moved within their communities was not just important, but crucial to the work of overcoming past atrocities.

“It is going to take an entire country to unravel those old ideals of privilege and patriarchy,” Jordan said. “It was never that way, I promise you. This country was never that way. I know this for a fact, primarily because my grandmothers told me so. Often times people don’t believe that we were a matriarchal form of society. We believed in egalitarianism where men and women are equal. We were even equal to nature.”

Throughout her speech, Jordan looked toward future generations with hope, excited by the willingness of young people to be inclusive, thoughtful, and capable of change.

“North Idaho will no longer be seen as the capital of hate,” Jordan said. “We have so much love to give here as a people. We have so many things around us that are bountiful.”