(uplifting music) - [Alison] So we're gonna run together today.

- Yes.

- Are you going to kill me?

(Alison laughing) - No, no, no.

- Where are you in your training, or what do you have coming up?

- I do have the team camp coming up.

- Okay.

So I beat the training which means you're out of shape.

- Yes.

- Which gives me a chance.

- Yeah.

- Wonderful.

- Definitely.

The timing could not be better.

- (laughing) Awesome.

How many miles are you looking to run today?

- Somewhere probably around four or less.

- All right.

- How does that sound?

- Let's do it.

(both laughing) (upbeat music) (music continues) (music continues) (upbeat music) - [Rosalie] My name's Rosalie Fish.

I'm a 21-year-old athletic advocate.

I'm an athlete at the University of Washington.

I'm queer, and I have a mental disability.

I run for missing and murdered indigenous woman and Two-Spirit.

I also am a member of the Muckleshoot and Cowlitz tribes.

I grew up on the reservation.

Most importantly, I'm a sister.

(music continues) - Thank you for the run.

(laughing) - It was great.

- When did running become more than just running for you?

- When I was younger, I had actually been living with undiagnosed bipolar, and at one point I actually got really bad suicidal ideation.

- Oh, wow.

- And while I was recovering from that, I was able to find running.

It gave me a routine, and it helped me regulate my days and my breathing.

- What I think about running that's so powerful is that it provides this coping mechanism, but so many people don't know that.

- One thing that's really indigenous is that seeing health holistically, both spiritually, mentally, physically, there's each part of us.

So even though bipolar is considered a mental disorder, by taking care of our bodies and appreciating them, can actually help treat things like bipolar and depression.

(soft music) - [Alison] How did running enter your life?

- Following up in my sophomore year of high school, and I had decided, "You know, I've been running on my mental health, and I've been getting a little bit better, and now I wanted to challenge myself and actually join the track team and compete at Muckleshoot Tribal High School."

And they threw me in a uniform and they were like, "Oh yeah, we finally got someone.

(Alison laughing) Get her on the track."

- You didn't know you were starting the track team.

- Yeah.

(both laughing) What I learned through competing as an athlete for a tribal school was the preconceptions of me as an athlete because I was tribal.

I would show up to meets, and the rivaling schools would perceive me as a joke.

We even at one point found graffiti in the women's bathroom, (soft music) and there were offensive slurs such as Indian savage.

- [Alison] Wow.

- And "Live off the government" on the same stalls that my siblings used.

And through being an athlete at tribal school, I learned that I was not only representing myself as a competitor, but I am bearing the traumas of indigenous youth and indigenous athletes in Washington.

And that's where it became more than running.

It became representing my people, and standing up to these stereotypes, and showing up on the line and people doubting me, people thinking I'd already lost the race, only to come up and win it.

(both laughing) But being able to have those youth who actually saw what I was doing and were appreciating it and hopefully inspiring them to show that we can be top caliber athletes no matter what anybody says.

- Can you tell me about that first time that you decided to place the hand print over your mouth, what that means, and your advocacy work?

- Missing and murdered indigenous women and Two-Spirit has been a huge part of my community since as long as I can remember.

I would see the missing persons posters.

There would be people in my life who had just disappeared.

I saw Jordan Marie Daniel, a mutual friend of ours, running the Boston Marathon, and she had a red hand print, and then the initials MMIW down her leg, and it was her using her platform as an athlete, a professional athlete at that, to raise awareness and to demand attention to this crisis that has been plaguing our communities.

I realized that I needed to be doing so much more, and she had shown me what I need to do.

So I messaged Jordan Marie Daniel, "I'm a huge fan, and I wanna ask your permission to follow following your footsteps, and use my state championship meet to run for missing and murdered indigenous woman and Two-Spirit."

And I decided to dedicate each of my races to a missing or murdered indigenous woman in my community.

My aunt, Alice Looney, Jackie Salyers, Renee Davis, Misty Upham.

- I mean hearing it, I get chills thinking about just how powerful that experience was, and the fact that you continue to speak these women's names, right?

That's often what activists and protestors say, "Say their name."

"Say her name," right?

Because so often people pass and are disregarded or are treated as though they don't matter.

- Murder is the third leading cause of death in native women and Two-Spirit people.

- [Alison] Wow.

- About 94% of us will experience violence within our lifetimes.

- 94% - And myself, my family, are included in that 94%.

- I'm sorry.

- Yeah, thank you.

We're okay.

- Who is Rosalie when she's not a runner, an activist?

- I'm a sister.

My youngest sister, Solstice, she's following me around.

Or maybe we're at Canoe Family practice.

I spend a lot of time with the members of the Muckleshoot Canoe Family, and their community, paddling on our traditional oceangoing canoes.

And that's how I'm able to connect with nature in my own way.

(bright music) - [Alison] I know that canoeing is, as you mentioned, your way of connecting to nature, and is this beautiful tradition.

Could you share with me the history behind that?

- [Rosalie] Yeah.

So my people, the Muckleshoot and Cowlitz people traveled by the waters.

I mean, our lives revolved around the ocean and the rivers.

It's what gave us life.

And we are able to practice what we call the traditional highways, which are the oceans.

And we can travel in our canoes, and we go up and down the sound.

The canoes are about 12 feet long, and they are super heavy.

They're made out of the trunk of a cedar tree.

- [Alison] Wow.

- [Rosalie] It starts burning in the first five seconds- - [Alison] It's like the first couple miles of a run, right?

- [Rosalie] Yeah.

Exactly.

But the fact that it's so difficult, it's like I have that privilege to be practicing this, and to be going through that pain.

And it's the closest thing I have to prayer.

Similar to running.

That's that, you know, even though it might be painful or it's tough, it's the privilege of being able to do it in the first place.

(bright music continues) (music continues) - [Alison] Hear more about this episode on the "Out & Back with Alison Mariella D sir" podcast.

Just search "Out & Back" wherever you listen.

- [Announcer] Fleet Feet is on a mission to inspire the runner and everyone, and is proud to sponsor Crosscut's "Out & Back with Alison Mariella D sir."