Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders received a Coast Salish name during a campaign visit in Seattle on March 20.

In the video posted to YouTube, former Tulalip councillor Deborah Parker presents Sanders with the Lushootseed name dxʷshudičup (pronounced dooh-s-who-dee-choop).

"We say it four times that carry [it] in the four directions. We name you this name … in the Lushootseed language the translation is, the one lighting the fires for change and unity," said Parker in the video.





"That is a wonderful honour you bestow on me, I accept it with deep appreciation," Sanders said in response to the name.

Sanders has focused considerable attention on indigenous issues during his campaign, visiting communities including the Meskwaki territories in Iowa and the Navajo territories in Arizona. He has also appointed Tara Houska, from Couchiching First Nation in Ontario, as his Native American adviser.

On the official YouTube channel for Sanders's campaign, he addresses indigenous voters in a video called "We are Listening to Native Americans."

"This campaign is listening to a people who never get listened to, and that is our Native American brothers and sisters," said Sanders.

"For hundreds of years treaties have been broken, they have been lied to, together we are going to change that and treat Native Americans with the respect and dignity that they deserve."

Coast Salish people are from the Pacific Northwest, and live in British Columbia and south of the border in the states of Washington and Oregon.