THE MICRONATION INDEX
Map designed by David McCloskey of the Cascadia Insitute
and Professor of Sociology at Seattle University.
© 1994 Cascadia Institute
The area along the Pacific Northwest of North America, from northern California into Oregon, Washington State, Idaho, Wyoming, Alberta, British Columbia, and into the Yukon Territory and the Alaska panhandle, is known alternatively as the Pacific Cascade, the Cascadian Bioregion, or "Cascadia".
In recent years, there have been grumblings among those residing there to secede from both the USA and Canada to form a separate country.
This is nothing new.
In 1941, there was an attempt among residents in counties along the California/Oregon border to secede from their respective states to form what would have been the 49th state, the State of Jefferson, with the town of Yreka (in California) to be the interim state capital (Consequently, most people in those counties cast their votes for the Republican Party in the 2004 Presidential election when both Oregon and California went Democratic).
In the 1970's, writer Ernest Callenbach proposed a new nation in his novels Ecotopia, and its "pre-quel", Ecotopia Emerging. These books describe a new country, formed from the secessionist states of Washington, Oregon, and the northern area of California, that is based on sustainable development and steady-state economics.
With the results of the 2004 Presidential election, the twin sabers of sedition and secession began to rattle once more. These links are what I have found concerning Cascadia. Their content varies greatly. Some are strictly informational, while others lean to the political left or right by considerable degrees.
- Some are Cascadian secessionist.
- Others are secessionist within the region (such as the Western Canada Project).
- Still others are simply businesses and organizations using the names "Cascadia" or "Cascadian" to associate themselves with the region.
In a 2011 article in TIME Magazine, the "Republic of Cascadia" was listed as one of the "Top Ten Aspiring Nations", noting its abundant natural resources, the fact it is home to several multinational corporations (Nike, Starbucks, Microsoft, Amazon) and that it is home to a thriving film industry in Vancouver, BC (often called "The Hollywood of the North").
This list will be added to as more websites can be located. In the meantime, please peruse this list. If you know of any other sites that should be listed, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.
Wikipedia listing on the Cascadian independence movement is here.
There is also a city in Oregon named "Cascadia".
List updated Tuesday, 26 July 2011.
An Anthem For a New Nation
by Skookum Tamanawis
"Kwanesum Chinook Illahee" is Chinook for "Land of the Chinook Forever".
Underneath the skies of Cascadia, where the mountain woodlands meet the sea,
E'vry living thing in Cascadia, united in diversity.
From the Rocky Mountain highlands, to the wide Pacific shore,
We will take our stand to preserve the land, and its biome evermore.
Voices rise in song for Cascadia, a light for all the world to see.
As we lift a pray'r for Cascadia, "Kwanesum Chinook Illahee".
"Alberta Republicans is a web site devoted to intelligent discussion of the overwhelmingly positive argument for Alberta's political, cultural and economic independence from Canada. In essence, we favour a new nation. Not sovereignty association (whatever that is). Not American statehood." - from the website
AltaColumbia ("A Cascadia Concepts Site")
"A narrower definition of Cascadia refers to the area influenced by the Cascade mountain range and the 100 miles of coastal lands between it and the Pacific Ocean. 'Cascadia' has lately become the term for the Can-Am border regional identity that has resulted in attempts primarily in Washington, Oregon and British Columbia to work cooperatively to promote their manifest destiny. Cascadia is also a Pac-Rim nation-state concept and is becoming the basis for regional autonomy. For many residents of the Pacific Northwest, Cascadia is a state of mind fostered by the lifestyle of this unique biosphere and has become a geographical identity spoken of with pride." - from the website
Discussion board and links on the topic.
Satirical "national anthem" composed by Dan LaRocque (aka "Larry"). Listen as an MP3 or RealPlayer file, or better still, buy his CD "Skips Like Us".
(Dan, if you're reading this, seriously consider more political lyrics for this. The melody is very stirring and would make a great flag-raising song, or something to sing at rallies.)
An annual Science Fiction convention held in Seattle, Washington.
Review of a Seattle, Washington bar.
Cascadia Bed and Breakfast - Chilliwack, British Columbia.
Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare
Substance abuse services provider in Portland, Oregon.
Cascadia Brass
This is a musical ensemble in the Seattle area, but their website seems to have vanished. If anyone can provide me with an update, please do so!!.
Commercial bank based in both New York City and Seattle, Washington.
A discussion group on Cascadian bio-regional affairs, but not necessarily on independence.
Cascadia Commons Cohousing - Portland, Oregon.
"Cohousing -- a new take on an age-old impulse -- started in Denmark 30 years ago, came to the U.S. about 10 years ago, and is gaining enthusiasts in every state. Private home ownership along with shared common ground and facilities draws people who are looking for more connection, and the opportunity to share and to learn." - from the website
Cascadia Community College Bothell, Washington.
Cascadia Confederacy ("Moving Towards Universal Self-Determination")
Website missing. Link to archived website.
"The movement for an autonomous Cascadia Confederacy springs from the desire for full sovereignty and self determination for all people and peoples in our region (Indian, Metis, and non-Indigenous) to be able to organize ourselves into communities and other social groupings as we see fit, and to live as we choose without interference. We hope to form a regional support base and link up in a confederated fashion with the many indigenous peoples of the region in order to help reestablish full cultural and political autonomy and sovereignty - attributes that are repressed under the current nation-state arrangement of Canada and the United States." - from the website
Cascadia Council of Scouts Canada
Surveillance video company in Cheney, Washington.
Cascadia Forest Alliance [CFA] (Archive Site - Environmental Activists)
Website missing. Link to archived site.
Cascadia Forest Defenders [CFD] (Environmental Activists) (Archived Website)
Website missing. Link to archived site.
"Cascadia Forest Defenders is an all-volunteer group dedicated to defending and preserving the ancient and native forests of Cascadia. We participate in Direct Action campaigns, including tree-sits. We conduct timber sale monitoring, lead hikes and study forest ecology. We also continuously challenge the patriarchal system that seeks to destroy these forests." - from the website
See also EcoEcho
Cascadia Forest Goods (Ecological Forest Products)
"Cascadia Forest Goods, LLC, is an integrated Forest Products company, working from the forest to the marketplace. When you buy from Cascadia Forest Goods, you will be getting quality forest products from forests where sustainable forestry and restoration is practiced. You can be assured that your money is be invested in protecting healthy, diverse forests and in sustaining healthy communities through jobs that add value to make our products. - from the website
Cascadia Graphics and Publishing - Lyle, Washington.
Cascadia Home Design - Delta, British Columbia.
Portland, Oregon home brewing supplier.
Cascadia Inn - Skykomish, Washington.
A project of Columbiana Magazine and the Columbia River Bioregional Education Project.
"Columbiana is devoted to sharing ideas of how to live in place, in the land drained by the Great River of the West, the Columbia River and its tributaries." - from the website
Cascadia International Resources LLC
Mining firm based in Calgary, Alberta.
Cascadia Internet Marketing and Web Development, Portland, Oregon.
Cascadia Media Collective [CMC] ("Guerrilla Media From Eugene, Oregon")
"Cascadia Media Collective is an uncompromising group of guerrilla journalists producing videos, audio CDs, pamphlets, and other multimedia projects. Our goal is to not only inform people of social injustice and environmental destruction but also to strengthen and mobilize the community of resistance." - from the website
As of 18 November 2006, this website has vanished. An archive of the site, via Archive.org, can be read here.
"On November 8, 2005, the Seattle voters rejected Proposition No. 1, a ballot proposal which would have allowed the Seattle Monorail Project to proceed with a shortened alignment from Dravus to Alaska Junction. The proposition was voted against by 64.4 percent of the voters.
"On November 9, the Seattle Monorail Project board of directors passed a resolution rejecting the negotiated agreements with Cascadia Monorail Company, canceling the request for proposals and formally terminating the procurement.
"We share the disappointment with many of you at the demise of this viable project; however, we respect the will of the majority of the electorate. We have the utmost regard for the dedication of the SMP board and staff, and the many citizen volunteers who contributed to this project. Our team had looked forward to a long and productive relationship with the citizens of Seattle to transform these plans into reality.
"We want to thank the hundreds of citizens we met and talked with in many community and individual meetings over the years. Your feedback has always been welcome and helpful in guiding our efforts to ensure you would have a system you would be proud of having in your neighborhoods, riding often and comfortably, and proudly calling your own.
"As of December 9, 2005, the downtown offices of Cascadia Monorail Company will be permanently closed. We will no longer maintain this Web site or be able to respond to inquiries.." - from the website
"The Cascadian Independence Project is a grass-roots social movement dedicated to building awareness and support for local democracy, global community and the freedom and eventual independence of Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. Cascadia is a unique coastal-mountain bioregion between San Francisco and the Alaskan panhandle in which the dominant culture is one of respect and honor for the environment and a strong tradition of democracy and social justice."
"By working in our communities around the Pacific Northwest, the Cascadian Independence Project works to strengthen personal freedom and maintain a robust local economy while creating a sustainable society that values and protects our unique ecosystem. America is too big, and our interests are better represented by the people themselves, rather than in a distant seat of power." - from the website
Patrick Muncaster's website on Cascadian regioanl awareness
Cascadia Project ("Commerce, Community and Conservation")
"The mission of the Cascadia Center is to support the development of a balanced, integrated, and expanded transportation system for people and goods in central Puget Sound and the greater Cascadia region of Washington, British Columbia, and Oregon. Such a system will ensure the region's ability to facilitate trade and tourism across a secure border and expand technology and infrastructure for global competitiveness in a manner that promotes livable communities." - from the website
Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup (CREW)
"Sharing Information to Promote Mitigation"
Cascadia Research Collective [CRC] (Scientific and Education Organization)
"Cascadia Research is a non-profit, tax-exempt (recognized by the IRS under 501c3) scientific and education organization based in Olympia, Washington. We were founded in 1979 primarily to conduct research needed to manage and protect threatened marine mammals." - from the website
Cascadia Restaurant Seattle, Washington.
Cascadia Revolving Fund (Nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution)
"Cascadia Revolving Fund envisions a future where Pacific Northwest individuals and their communities have the means to reach their full potential and achieve economic, social, and environmental health." - from the website
Cascadia RiSiNG! EcoDefense (Environmental Activists)
"Cascadia Rising is a regional network of environmental organizations in the Pacific Northwest (aka Cascadia). We recognize and value strength in diversity of tactics, and some of our member organizations use the principles of nonviolence, civil disobedience, and direct action to prevent the destruction of our increasingly scarce native forests. We seek to approach the problems of environmental degredation at a bio-centric manner." - from the website
UPDATE: Website appears to have shut down in June of 2007. Archived website can be read here via Archive.org.
Cascadia related weblog run by John Mahar.
Cascadia Society for Social Working
Special Needs Group Home in North Vancouver, British Columbia.
Cascadia Summer (Environmental Activists)
" The Cascadia Summer campaign is made-up of a diverse group of local conservationists fighting to protect forests, streams, and wildlife. We recognize and value strength in diversity of tactics. During Cascadia Summer, activists will be engaging in a wide-range of tactics from civil disobedience, tree-sits, public outreach in urban and rural areas, lawsuits, political pressure, and popular education. Trainings in direct action, non-violence, blockading, legal issues, and much much more will be provided." - from the website
As of 20 February 2007, this website has vanished.
Cascadia Times (Regional Environmental News Publication)
"Cascadia Times is the only publication based in the Pacific Northwest serving that region with in-depth coverage of environmental and natural resource issues. The Pacific Northwest is a region where issues of clean water, endangered species, forests, marine mammals, grazing, hydropower, industrial agriculture, organic farming, mining, salmon, bears, coyotes, wolves and mountain lions are backyard, everyday issues." - from the website
Social services training agency in Seattle, Washington.
Website developer in Seattle, Washington.
Cascadia Wholefoods Bakery - Victoria, British Columbia.
Cascadia Wildlands Project [CWP] (Environmental Activists)
"Defending the forests, waters, and wildlife of the Cascadia Bioregion"
"The Cascadia Wildlands Project (CWP) is a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1997. The CWP is dedicated to defending the forests, waters and wildlife of Cascadia by monitoring environmentally destructive projects and educating, organizing and agitating for a more compassionate and responsible relationship with the ecosystems of our bioregion. We take aggressive, no compromise stands against logging, road building, mining and other unsustainable resource extraction activities in wild places." - from the webiste
Cascadian Bioregionalism Discussion Group
According to an e-mail from "A Cascadian": "The Cascadian flag or Tree flag or Doug Fir flag or simply Doug I designed and had online for several decades now. This is the newest and clearest version and unlike the parody site of 'the Republic of Cascadia' its not for sale and anyone can make stickers or cloth versions without charge. Cascadia is not a product to sell T-shirts."
Consequently, Cascadian auto stickers and flags are available for sale, as well as on other media and designs.
Also: UBCWiki:Cascadia
Cascadian Building Maintenance
A janitorial service in the Puget Sound area of Washington State.
"Commentary on Politics, Society and the Media from the Northern Left Coast of the Reality-Based Community" - from the website
Cascadian Chorale and Cascadian Singers
A mixed chorus with chamber ensemble in the Puget Sound region of Washington State. The Cascadian Singers are a semi-professional ensemble of the chorus, performing primarily acapella concerts. They have recently recorded and released a compact disc.
According to a report on Portland IndyMedia, this was originally a collective of farmers in Washington State. The company is now a division of General Mills.
According to the company's own website, in 1998, along with Muir Glen Tomatoes, it "became part of Small World Foods", which in turn was purchased by General Mills. The company offers over 100 products made with organic ingrediants.
A weblog monitoring threats to Cascadia, primarily mercenary groups.
Cascadian Independence Project
This group also runs a Facebook page.
Cascadian National Party [CNP]
"The CNP, the Cascadian National Party is a new political party representing the peoples of Oregon and Washington that are frustrated with the political, economic, social, and cultural indifference that has been imposed on our land in the last several years and now feel that the 'grand experiment' called the United States has become redundant and therefore the time is coming for the states of Oregon and Washington to go their own way. The CNP political leanings are neither extreme left nor extreme right. We have views that adapt elements of Libertarian, Progressive, Environmental, and Nationalist beliefs. However, the main goal is for our states to gain independence in a democratic and legal manner." - from the website
Not affiliated with the "Republic of Cascadia [RoC]".
This website was last updated in 2003.
A wholesale-only nursery located in the Tualatin Valley, west of Portland, Oregon.
"This forum is for discussion of the viability and courses of action necessary for building a secessionist movement in the Pacific Northwest bioregion known by many as Cascadia. In the 1970s, Ernest Callenbach envision Northern California, Oregon and Washington State are a new ecologically grounded utopia in his noval 'Ecotopia'."
"Cascadia has had various names in the past and present. The Oregon Country or later Oregon Territory was the name applied by English speakers in the late 18th century. Chinook Illahee was the name for the region west of the Rockies in Chinook Jargon. In the 1970s environmental utopian novel by Ernest Callenbach the region was called Ecotopia." - from the website
Committee to Explore California Secession (Move On California)
"It may not be the only answer or even the best answer, but citizens on the West Coast are finding themselves increasingly distinct and disenfranchised from the conservative cultural domination of the large middle and southern sections of the country. - from the website
"We are here to peacefully resist a number of grievances. We're subject to a government which is rapidly degenerating into a fascist dictatorship. Our environment is being pillaged by corporations for the sake of the almighty dollar. Our people are forced to live without reasonable healthcare because they are unable to pay the exorbitant rates that are out of reach of most of the working people in this land."
"Our proposals vary but our goals are the same. We will do whatever it takes to defend our home from those who would exploit it and our people from those who would terrorize or intimidate them. Our goals and methods are peaceful but we will not hesitate to do whatever is needed in the pursuit of Liberty. Some of us favor secession. Some of us favor reform. Many of us desire to reunify a land that has been divided by an arbitrary border for over 160 years. All of us support Cascadia. We are united by a love of this land and all who dwell within it." - from the website
"Secession is not treasonous. The Clarity Act specifies a legal means by which a province may separate from Canada. This legal framework for separation is what this website advocates." - from the website
"We want to spread the awareness of the unique nature of the Pacific Northwest, where people have always blazed their own trails. We hold that it is once again time to consider our commonwealth, to speak for a sustainable future separate from the suicidal path of environmental, spiritual and societal destruction inherent in the rise of the corporate state." - from the website
"The FTB is a non-profit, internet based organization that seeks to educate and promote the goals of peaceful independence and the importance of California to both the world and the US in economic and political matters." - from the website
Article on the "Ecotopia" concept.
"Kingdom of Cascadia" (Hypothetical Nation Project)
"'The Kingdom of Cascadia' is a sort of thought experiment I've been carrying on since the late 1980s, kind of a laboratory in which to try out various ideas for how a government ought to be structured (and whether one ought to exist at all). It's also an excuse for designing a lot of flags." - Andrew Rogers (from the website)
Move On California
See Committee to Explore California Secession
Nonviolent Action Community of Cascadia
Seattle-based affiliate of the War Resisters League and National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.
Photo essay of the Pacific Northwest.
Portland IndyMedia (Discussion Board on Cascadian Secession)
Radio Free Cascadia [RFC] ("An online organizing center for free radio direct action in the bioregion of Cascadia")
Includes historical information on two "special event" radio stations, Radio Free Cascadia International and Y2WTKO.
As of 18 November 2006, some of these websites have vanished.
Archived websites (via Archive.org):
Radio Free Cascadia
Radio Free Cascadia International
Y2WTKO
The tracks from the CD "Five Days Over Seattle" and a .pdf of the insert booklet can be downloaded here, courtesy of DIYmedia.net.
Web-based listener-supported radio station from Paradise, California (which would be in southern Cascadia). It features a great selection of music, and probably reflective of what Cascadian culture could become.
Alberta secessionist website. Staunchly conservative in scope.
This website is run by Lyle Zapato, who operates a number of satirical websites. This one, however, features links to legitimate organizations devoted to Cascadian independence (However, the "Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus" and "Sasquatch Miltia" logos link to his satirical sites).
The flag he has designed for Cascadia (pictured above) appears to be the most popular so far, and stickers with the flag are available from his website (Sales are reportedly brisk). Web-buttons can be downloaded from this site as well.
Not affliated with the Cascadian National Party [CNP].
Republic of Cascadia
{The Bioregional Cooperative Commonwealth of Cascadia}
Apparently a serious website. This contains detailed news and information about the region and its people.
Separation Party of Alberta [SPA]
"For almost 100 years, Alberta and the West have been trying to become real members of Canada and true, equal partners in Confederation. These efforts have proved fruitless. It is time to move forward and protect Alberta's future. It is time to stop the financial and emotional drain caused by an incompetent, unresponsive political and bureaucratic nightmare called 'Ottawa'." - from the website
U.S. Green Building Council: Cascadia Chapter
ViveLeCanada (Discussion Board on Cascadian Secession)
"Here you can sample the Western Separatist Papers, read about the history of Western Canada and why Independence, in our view, is the only solution to historical grievances. You will also find links allowing you to participate in building a new nation by joining in this peaceful, political movement." - from the website
"Who belongs in the Pacific Northwest?" (Link updated!)
The first in a series of articles produced by the University of Washington's Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, all of which are worth reading.
YAHOO GROUPS
Cascadian Bioregionalism
Cascadian Conservation Corps
Cascadian NationalismRETURN TO THE USA SEDITION/SOVEREIGNTY PAGE
New E-Mail Address:
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