My story

Identifying as mult-iethnic and multi-tribal, Patricia “Chookenshaa” Allen predominantly identifies as multiethnic and multi-tribal; Tlingit (Xun.aa Kaa.wu/Hoonah Village – Glacier Bear Clan/Eagle Moiety (Chookaneidi/Naanaa Hit) Alaska Native, Mohawk, Seneca, Black, Eastern Band Cherokee and AfroCaribbean (Montserrat Island – Arawak, Sierra Leonen, Taína descent).

Patricia is a 3rd generation Seattle resident, raised in White Center, South King County. Being the daughter of an Alaska Native boarding school survivor and another parent having severe mental illness and trauma as well, Patricia is rooted in on a lifelong journey of healing genetic, intergenerational and personal taumas. In result, she was raised and adopted by her grandmother and matriarch, Dr. Allethia Allen, retired and tenured University of Washington School of Social Work professor. In her late teens, she overcame an unfortunate act of sexual violence that led to her surviving a spinal cord injury. Although she has recovered, she will forever be a spinal cord injury survivor with a spinal fusion in her back. With these early childhood and adolescent traumas, she has continually advocates for neuro-divergent and accessibility inclusion in activism, leadership development and healing/wellness practices. Participating in community lead her to a commitment of advocating for grassroots civil, environmental and human rights. Patricia is a founding member of NDNs for Justice (2010-2014); a women-led Indigenous civil rights organization in Seattle in response to the Department of Justice investigation of the Seattle Police Department. Whereas, the DOJ effort as well as the efforts of the loved ones of victims of state violence, eventually led to the Seattle Consent Decree - a policy still active today. At 20 years of age, she began actively participating in social justice community organizing - supporting Native and Black community-led campaigns for accountability and systemic healing while studying, as well as working, at South Seattle College as the Cultural Center’s Native American Commission Director. She is also a voluntary member and Transformative Justice Co-Chair of Hip Hop grassroots organization, 206 Zulu, and a member of Women of Color Speak Out (2016-2019); nationally organizing and educating the systems of oppression that have led to climate change and educating why it is important for marginalized communities to lead the global environmental justice movement.

As a scholar and researcher - Patricia has spent many years researching the intersectionality of human, environmental, and international Indigenous rights in relationship to reconciliation and healing (in Canada, South Africa and Peru) during her undergrad at the University of Washington. Before completing her Bachelors of arts in American Ethnic Studies and Law Societies & Justice - she proudly served as the Director of Diversity Efforts for the Associated Students at the University of Washington (student government), as well as the student-appointed Student Advisory Board for the UW Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity. She also voluntarily participated in First Nation @ UW (Student Senator, Pow Wow/Coastal Grand Entry/Hand Drum Committee & Diversity Chair), Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlán (Education Co-Chair), Hip Hop Student Association (Outreach Chair), Student Diversity Coalition (Student Diversity Credit Initiative Lead), the UW Black Student Union. Her minors are in Diversity, Human Rights and Gender Women & Sexuality, as well as was a soloist for the University of Washington Women’s Choir. Before graduating in 2015, she graciously received the Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center’s ‘Activist of the Year’ award and became a finalist for the Morris K. Udall Scholarship.

Patricia has been actively participating in coastal canoe journeys in BC, Alaska and Washington every year since 2011; navigating the ancestral water highways and actively learning the socio-political history of northwest coastal Indigenous nations. As a canoe journeys participant and tribal delegate for Tlingit and Haida Tribes of Southeast Alaska, she has actively participated in the Potlatch traditions of ceremony and witnessing oral history throughout British Columbia, Washington State and Southeast Alaska. She has been a dancer and lead traditional singer for several canoe families and coastal dance groups in ceremony and social gatherings. After returning from Standing Rock in 2016, she focused her grassroots organizing in the Seattle Black and Native communities of color around solidarity, accountability, and healing. In 2019, she was training by Tlingit & Haida Tribal Court Justices and Tribal Leader, Mike Jackson, on Kake (Keek.Kwaan) Peace Making Circle Facilitation and Tlingit Restorative Justice practices.

She is currently serving as the Civil Rights Chair and as an elected Delegate for Tlingit & Haida Tribes of Southeast Alaska (Seattle Chapter); working with Gathering Roots BIPoC Wellness & Retreat Center as the Community Engagement Manager and a Transformative Circle leader. in 2021, she has taken on the honor of caregiving her elder grandmother in her south King County home, learning first-hand from her guidance and family’s legacy.