A message of hope and blessings for environmental defenders were lifted up by Tribal leaders on Saturday, March 4.
Elders from the Jamestown S’Klallam and Chemakum Tribes met with Lummi …
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A message of hope and blessings for environmental defenders were lifted up by Tribal leaders on Saturday, March 4.
Elders from the Jamestown S’Klallam and Chemakum Tribes met with Lummi Nation carvers at the Fort Worden Commons to gather the prayers of local people and carry them forward to environmental defenders Apache Stronghold working to defend their sacred site at Oak Flat in Arizona.
“The significance of Oak Flat is the right for the Indigenous people to pray in the way that their ancestors have taught them to pray since the beginning of time,” said Siamel’wit, of the Lummi House of Tears Carvers.
“The Apache people, they have their prayer ways that are sacred. They have their prayer ways that have been carried on for thousands and thousands of years,” she added.
The totem pole journey will total 6,584 miles over 33 days with 41 stops on the way to Oak Flat.
That location has been identified as the site for the largest copper mine in U.S. history. If the mine is developed as planned, it will leave a crater 2 miles long and 1,000 feet deep at a place the San Carlos Apache have stewarded for thousands of years.
“Technically all places are sacred, all places are sacred, all is sacred territory. This just happens to be the one territory that was set aside,” Siamel’wit said.
The House of Tears Carvers have been doing annual totem pole journeys since their first in honor of 9/11.
“My brother was back there in DC lobbying, and when he got back home he figured what could we do as a small nation to help a devastated county?” said Sit ki kadem, also known as Doug Jame, a Lummi elder.
“So he came up with the process of carving a totem pole, and that went across country to all the people, and he told all the people to put their hand here, let their cry go, and send a prayer across country to those that perished and those that were left behind. And it worked.”
The House of Tears Carvers work in conjunction with the Alliance of Earth, Sky, and Water Protectors, as well as their nonprofit sponsor Catskill MountainKeeper, and Apache Stronghold.
To donate to the journey and keep the prayers on their way, go to catskillmountainkeeper.org/house_of_tears_carvers_donations.
