Healing village for Native women to open in Skyway

Mother Nation’s Spirit Journey Healing Village still needs to reach its $11.9 million goal to become fully realized.

By Bailey Josie • June 7, 2025 7:30 am

Since its founding in 2011 from out of Norine Hill’s car, Mother Nation has brought much-needed services and support to Indigenous women throughout the Seattle area and King County.

“She worked and did a lot of good work in Indian country in Seattle, and she started seeing really large disparities with Native women that were unhoused and not getting the services or support that they needed. And there was a gap in between them being unhoused and receiving services,” said Yvette Perrantes, Development and Marketing Manager at Mother Nation.

Over time, Hill was asked by the Catholic Community Services of Western Washington to run Spirit Journey House, a transitional housing program for unhoused Native women who are in recovery from substance abuse. Mother Nation became a brick-and-mortar nonprofit for Native women and families, offering weekly talking circles, Native Alcoholics Anonymous 12 Step program, parenting classes, grief and loss programs, cultural workshops and more.

And this fall, Mother Nation will expand its services with the building of Spirit Journey Healing Village on two acres of land in Skyway.

The first of its kind in the nation and designed as a “sacred, survivor-led response to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIWR) and fentanyl crises” the healing village is set to break ground in October 2025.

Over $5.1 million has already been secured for the village, including congressional direct spending, funding from the Washington State Department of Commerce and 4Culture, but Mother Nation still needs to raise over $6 million to reach its project goal.

The healing village will be able to offer services for Native women in recovery while also allowing their children to stay with them, with the women and children’s house being the first building for planned development.

“This village is for us, by us. Spirit Journey Healing Village will be a sacred place where Native women reclaim our spirit, identities, families and futures,” said Hill.

The healing village will provide “safe, culturally grounded housing” along with “wraparound healing services” for Native women who have experienced sexual assault, domestic violence, fentanyl poisoning, sex trafficking and homelessness. Traditional ceremonies will be a large part of the healing process, complete with a tranquil view of Tahoma (the original name for Mt. Rainier).

“I’m very excited for the spirit Journey Healing Village to come together. I love being a DV sexual assault advocate, but I think the most rewarding part of my job is working with the women here,” said Zoey Martin, who is an advocate for Mother Nation’s Yeha:wi Service. “In the last three years, I’ve seen so many women come here so broken and be able to rebuild their lives, get healing, get their children back transition into a stable permanent housing, become employed. It’s just such an amazing and rewarding feeling to just be a part of their journey and it’s such an honor.”

For more information on the Spirit Journey Healing Village and the variety of services provided by Mother Nation, visit mothernation.org.