Last Updated on April 10, 2025
Tragic comedy best describes the political theatre of Pacific International Terminals and its hired guns for a coal export facility proposal in Washington state. Even before the environmental impact study has begun, the Gateway Pacific Terminal fiasco already comprises a three-act drama worthy of Shakespeare.
Caught in the act of illegally clearing a registered archaeological site containing an Indian village and burial ground in 2011, PIT in 2012 attempted to bribe the tribe with a multi-million dollar payoff in exchange for their treaty fishing rights and cultural heritage. When that failed, PIT hired the world’s largest public relations firm to stack the deck at public hearings on its slippery proposal by fiddling with the speaker allotment system. Recently exposed for publishing misleading advertisements, PIT’s mouthpieces have set the stage for its demented dream to go down in flames.
Value for money. PIT can buy mouthpieces, but it apparently can’t buy brains.
Across the world right now, Indigenous peoples are facing a renewed assault on their lands, rights, and ways of life.
From extractive industries pushing deeper into ancestral territories, to governments rolling back hard-won protections,
the threat is global—and it is growing.
What makes this moment especially dangerous is how little attention it receives.
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barely covers it and the coverage is fragmented. The public is left without the context
needed to understand what is truly at stake.
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