Formerly incarcerated Indigenous community members celebrate their homecoming wrapped in butterfly blankets at the second annual Welcome Home and Honoring Celebration earlier this month. (Photo: Jordan Somers)

By Elizah Lourdes Rendorio

Earlier this month, the Indigenous advocacy organization, Huy, and Eighth Generation hosted their second annual Welcome Home and Honoring Celebration, a ceremony recognizing formerly incarcerated relatives and celebrating their homecoming.

The event took place at Eighth Generation’s headquarters in Georgetown, filled with community members, formerly incarcerated people, and their beloved family and friends eager to commemorate. The night served as a return to identity and community, restoring faith and hope as relatives impacted by incarceration take on new beginnings.

“It's about repairing a relationship that a system tried to break,” said Ben Brockie, a A'aninin Tribal member from Fort Belknap, Montana who completed his prison sentence last year. “Reminding our relatives, myself included, that we still belong, we're still loved, and that we still have purpose in this world.”

A'aninin Tribal member Ben Brockie speaks at the second annual Welcome Home and Honoring Celebration earlier this month. (Photo: Jordan Somers)

Huy provides economic, educational, and religious support for Indigenous prisoners, enhancing their pathways to rehabilitation. The organization has helped restore Indigenous religious and spiritual practices, including sweat lodge ceremonies, powwows, and sacred medicine gardens across all 12 Washington State Department of Corrections facilities, allowing incarcerated relatives to reconnect with their cultural practices.

According to Gabe Galanda, Huy’s chairman and citizen of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, incarcerated Indigenous people face a disproportionate recidivism rate of 45.3%, perpetuating the historical cycle of trauma rooted in colonialism.

“We as community members bear responsibility to make way for our relatives to successfully come home and stay home,” he said. “It requires collective commitment, energy, and resources.”

Gabe Galanda, Huy’s chairman and citizen of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, speaks at the second annual Welcome Home and Honoring Celebration earlier this month. (Photo: Jordan Somers)

The centerpiece of the celebration was the powerful butterfly blanket ceremony, where formerly incarcerated individuals are wrapped in the butterfly blanket’s embrace, signifying transformation.

Brockie, who received the blanket last year, said the blanket carries deep cultural significance, often used in Indigenous communities to drape individuals with signs of “honor, protection, and love.”

“For me, I don’t think the blanket was a gift,” he said. “It was more a statement that I made it home, that I had community, and that I was being claimed by my people.”

Coast Salish artist and member of the Nooksack tribe Louie Gong designed both the butterfly blanket and Huy logo, drawing inspiration from Huy’s work.

“Huy is one of the engines that is perpetuating the cycle of support in our community,” Gong said. “It's a great example for everybody to aspire to.”

Member of the Nooksack tribe Louie Gong speaks at the second annual Welcome Home and Honoring Celebration earlier this month. (Photo: Jordan Somers)

Gong explained that the motif of the Huy logo is two helping hands intertwined. The design represents the spindle whorl, an iconic Coast Salish symbol and tool used for creating yarn, embodying movement and balance.

“Sometimes you’re on top, your cup is full, and you have a chance to support…” he said. “In the future, we will be on the other end where we need a hand up, and the folks that we’ve helped in the past will be right there to help us.”

Tosha Big Eagle, a member of the Húŋkpati Oyáte of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, was one of the honorees at this year's ceremony. She said reconnecting to her culture and identity was crucial to her healing journey and credited Huy for reintroducing her to Indigenous practices while incarcerated.

Big Eagle described the challenges she faced reentering society, from securing her first job to navigating everyday tasks like grocery shopping.

“I remember getting out and going to Fred Meyers to get some chips,” she said. “Just the amount of people in the building, the amount of choices that you have, it was very overwhelming.”

Tosha Big Eagle is wrapped in a butterfly blanket at the second annual Welcome Home and Honoring Celebration earlier this month. (Photo: Jordan Somers)

She emphasized the importance of community members extending their support to those both in and outside of prison, embracing a collective path to healing.

“It's very important that we recognize that our traditional ways, our culture, our ceremonies, our communities, are exactly what people need,” she said.

Brockie echoes similar sentiments adding that community plants and nurtures the seed of dignity necessary to help people move beyond past mistakes.

“When you listen to somebody with purpose, you're telling them you're not forgotten,” Brockie said. “When the community tells somebody we need you, it gives that person a reason to stay grounded and committed to their path.”

Travis ComesLast, a currently incarcerated individual and citizen of Assiniboine Sioux Tribe in Montana, joined the ceremony by phone. ComesLast has been serving a 51 year prison sentence for crimes committed before turning 21.

Speaking through the prison phone line, ComesLast expressed jubilation and hope for his future outside the facility.

“Man, one day, that could be me,” he said. “That will be me.”

An honoree is wrapped in a butterfly blanket at the second annual Welcome Home and Honoring Celebration earlier this month. (Photo: Jordan Somers)

ComesLast has since become a devoted beekeeper and spiritual leader, working with other incarcerated Indigenous men on paths towards healing. He said that when he comes home, he hopes to return the support shown by community members, including Huy, who have stood by him.

“It's my turn to give back,” ComesLast said. “It's my turn to get out there and carry the burden, carry the load, and help continue the work that they're doing.”

The night culminated with a celebratory procession, honoring the five recipients and their powerful journeys home. The ceremony, which embodies Native excellence and resilience, will be featured in Huy’s upcoming documentary, “Resilience Inside” which tells the story about the fight for incarcerated Indigenous people’s religious freedom. Ultimately, the night served as a symbol of hope, a new chapter where relatives like Brockie, Big Eagle, and ComesLast emerge from their cocoons, ready to take flight.